The Last Call
by Vivid Fox
Summary: Suze can't forget her troubled past with Paul, or her old regrets with Jesse. Years have gone by and now their meeting seems inevitable as they join an organization to rid the world of unwanted ghosts. Seems like more than the past will haunt Suze.
1. The Beginning

**Disclaimer: **I do not own the 'Mediator' series or any of its characters.

This story takes place two years after 'Haunted' and 'Twilight' has never happened.

xx Fox

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o0o  
Chapter 1: The Beginning

It had been two years. Two long years after Paul Slater had left.

Actually, two and a half years, but who's counting?

The thought popped into my head the second I woke up this morning. Not the best way to begin the day but there it was. A memory I thought I had long ago buried in the back of my head.

He had left only a few days after the Winter Dance. I still couldn't believe it; Paul had… given up.

Actually, the first thing I couldn't believe was that I agreed to go _with_ him to the dance.

Jesse couldn't either, but the president _and_ vice president of the school _had_ to go together, so I had no choice. Not that I had truly wanted any sort of presidency position in this school, but my friends were resilient and I was competitive.

So, he asked and I said yes. It isn't a crime, you know! Maybe it should have been. Anything about Paul should have been a damn crime. Lock him away, far away from me. Or me away from him, apparently.

But I definitely wasn't looking forward to it, I mean yes... Paul is a handsome guy. If we get down to brass tactics here, he was downright godly. But he was not, _Jesse._ Unfortunately for me, as much as I wanted to take Jesse as a date, I couldn't. It might look a bit strange if I was dancing with thin air...

That's the problem with being in love with a ghost. Alright, there were _several_ problems with being in love with a ghost, but thinking of them made my heart ache in all the wrong ways.

It wasn't prom or anything that was supposed to matter right? So really it was one harmless dance? Wrong. Oh _why_ did I have to go with Paul Slater? Because he is a good kisser_. _Quiet inner voice, we need none of that!

... ... _ I can remember it vividly play by play, the images stuck in my head; they do say that bad experiences are some of the easiest to remember. I was all dolled up, might as well have fun getting ready if the rest of the night will be a snooze fest. I was wearing a long, silvery silk gown. A sweetheart shaped neckline, strapless, with a back line that was low._

_My hair was dark, shinning and up in a slightly messy bun, some of it fell loosely on my face.  
_

_I knew I was looking pretty good when I looked in the mirror, my dark brown hair making my green eyes pop, my dress fitting me snuggly.  
_

_I was doing up one of the straps on my shoes when I saw a mist behind me from in the mirror. I whirled around and was face to face with Jesse de Silva._

"_You…" he said, "You look beautiful querida." He looked me up and down, truly meaning his words. I blushed, hey I couldn't help it okay? When a handsome man tells you that you are beautiful, you blush.  
_

"_Thanks Jesse. Um, so…" I said awkwardly. I just wanted to yell at him, 'SO, ARE WE GOING OUT?' But I don't think someone from the 1850's would really appreciate it, so I just refrained from screaming for the moment even if I was confused with our current relationship._

_Jesse remained silent, looking into my eyes. Uh, that can stop now. I mean, I was also looking into his big, dark eyes but it was making it oh-so-much harder not to just kiss him._

_ But didn't he kiss **me** in the graveyard near our school, not long ago? But then we never even talked about it, as if it never happened. Paul had tried his best to come inbetween us, but we got past that. They even got into a physical fight (ruining our house, and Brad's party) over me. Not long afterwards, Jesse and I had gotten caught up in a passionate kiss. _

_Then, nothing. He backed off, seemingly embarassed by his actions. Weeks has passed and we had never talked about it. After the fight between them, Paul had backed off as well; from coming inbetween me and Jesse at least. I was thankful for that at least from him, even if Jesse was avoiding me anyways, so there wasn't much he could have come between. _

_We had continued our shifter lessons for a couple weeks after. Not from threats over Jesse (which was why I origionally signed up), but because I was genuinely curious about my powers, and he was the only teacher. God, I couldn't even think of these lessons now... they always ended with me racing out the door guiltily. _

_Paul had been patient and kind to me over the last couple of weeks, and with Jesse's avoidance depressing me... **yes** I had agreed to the dance with Paul.  
_

_ I shook my head to break out of my thoughts. I looked up at Jesse, who was staring at me,_

"_Stop that!" I said taking a step back; we both somehow had ended up standing very close to each other._

"_Stop what?" he asked in general confusion._

"_Well, you… just… stop staring at me!" I blurted out, blushing madly.  
_

"_Well querida, I just wanted a look at you before you went out on your big date." He said chuckling lightly._

"_Big date? Please Jesse, this is not a date." I said; my eyebrow raised high._

"_SUSIE! YOUR DATE IS HERE!" My mom yelled from downstairs. Okay, WORST timing ever. Jesse gave me a look,_

"_See querida?" He sounded like a jealous boyfriend. I wish he was.  
_

"_Jesse…" I said sadly, "I would rather go with you a gazillion times more than with Paul. I really do…" I began but he cut me off,_

"_I know Susannah, it is okay." He said smiling lightly. "I just wish I could dance with you." He added._

"_I'll save you a dance after, under the stars." I said with a smile on my face, at least it was something to look forward to. _

_He smiled back, another long silence followed by more thoughts from me about, well, us. When would we be together? Did he even want to be? Did it mean anything? Does he think of this as obsessively as I do?  
_

"_Querida, listen… about that time…" Jesse started and my heart flipped, was he finally going to talk about that graveyard kiss? Apparently not, seeing how he was cut off by none other then Paul._

"_Breaking up an important moment?" He said with his trade mark smirk. He was leaning against the doorway in a black tux and skinny tie, and a dark blue dress shirt underneath. I had to admit, he was looking really good, especially with his deep tan and light hair. But his cold eyes gleamed as he looked me up and down._

"_Slater." Jesse said in a growl. I blinked and was out of my trance of Paul's good looks and looked at Jesse, he was just as handsome of course, but he was wearing an unattractive scowl on his otherwise attractive face; and Paul was returning it with a glare. The tension in the room went **WAY** up._

"_Uh." I said unintelligently, "Okay then…"_

"_You weren't coming downstairs so your mom said to go get you." Paul said smiling. I simply shrugged._

"_You are looking so beautiful tonight." Paul said with a smile that sent shivers up my spine. "I can't wait to dance with you." Jesse took a step forward and said in a dangerously low voice,_

"_Do not harm Susannah in anyway way or else."_

"_Or else?" Paul said lazily. "Don't get your cowboy boots in a mess, she'll come back… unharmed." Paul said with a quick wink towards me. I could see Jesse clenching his fists so I quickly kissed him on the cheek and strode towards Paul._

"_Just go!" I ushered him out the doorway and gave Jesse one last hopeless look before walking away. ... ...  
_

I shook my head, no I would **not** remember that night. I closed my eyes and sighed quietly. It was too painful to remember these things… I opened my eyes letting in the California light. Summer had started and it was the middle of summer vacation. I was eighteen years old, graduated, and did not know what I was going to do with my life, let alone what college I was going to attend to.

I had sort of dismissed the whole thing, wanted to take a year off. I had tried hard not to think about it; even when my friends had all been excited to hear from their respective colleges, even when they were eager to shop for new dorm supplies, and even when I knew it meant saying goodbye, I had ignored it. It was all easier than the thought of saying goodbye to Jesse and moving on with my life. How far could he follow me? To college, to my jobs, as I end up marriage-less and kid-less?

Fuck, that was depressing. But I was restless, I knew that. I was the type of person that needed to keep moving. If I stayed too long in one spot and thought too much, it was all too heartbreaking to deal with. So keep moving. Now I was stuck. Everyone would leave with their lives come fall, and I would be left to stand in place. I'm an idiot.

I heard my mom calling from downstairs; maybe someone was here to see me? I quickly put on my favourite Stila lipgloss and took a quick glace in the mirror. My hair was darker now, almost black, and shiny. It was quite long and unruly but it looked amazing, I could admit. I had gotten tanner thanks to the California sun, at least in comparison to my New York days, and the cardio I was doing was paying off.

Sighing, I rushed down the stairs to find my mom in the kitchen. No company for me, what a waste of lipgloss. Andy was making lunch and it smelled delicious.

"Smells good Andy!" I said as I walked by and he smiled, concentrating on the task in front of him. He had done a good job as the role of my stepfather for the past couple years, I'm sure I wasn't the easiest to take care of. My mother handed me a single letter,

"University acceptance?" she asked in a hopeful tone. I rolled my eyes, _yeah right_, I applied for only a few loser schools, all of which I didn't care about. I just didn't know what I wanted to do and I couldn't just _leave_, not this place, not yet. I opened the envelope addressed to a 'Miss Susannah Simon', to find a surprising letter.

_Dear Miss Simon,_

_We understand to our furthest knowledge that you are a mediator. _

_We are an organization; MED. We request to have you become a member of our group, which would include a few other mediators from the area. You will be paid for your duties and get to aid many people in the process. We hope to get the organization fully up and running by the end of the summer. We are sorry for such a short time period and hope this isn't too much of an inconvenience. If you wish to obtain further information on MED, you can contact us at our first meeting at the _ _Junipero_ _Serra_ _High School__ Church on July 31st. We hope to see you there,_

_Madame, Hackteur._

I sort of just stared at the letter for a few seconds, I mean hello? MED? What the…

"Susie?" Mom said, trying to get a look at the letter.

"Uh, oh, it's nothing Mom! Just same lame junk mail saying I won a house!" I laughed lamely, she looked disappointed.

"Lunch!" Andy yelled and I snapped back to attention, I had zoned out again looking at the letter. Soon we were all eating; David was talking to Mom and Andy loudly about how the sun is increasingly becoming stronger this summer due to global warming or something, and we should be wearing SPF 60. I looked over at him; he really hadn't changed now that he was in grade 9, but I liked him like this. He was dependable and comfortable with who he was, and that's what I liked. Not change. Andy gave a cough then spoke up to Brad and me,

"Get accepted into anything yet Brad? I know it's late, now that's it's mid summer, but maybe something got lost in the mail…" he said looking at Dopey sternly. Dopey just kind of sat there and swallowed his food,

"Uh, no. I think I'm going to stick with 'the plan' and take this year off _then_ go off to college." He said and Andy's face fell. Opsie, WRONG answer. Andy wouldn't really bug me about the whole 'going off the college' thing. He knew I was a fairly good student and he seemed to trust I would find my way. It was Mom's job to bug me about it, and she did often, but he did not approve of Dopey's decision one bit,

"Brad I will not let you laze around at home for the next year, party every night and hang with your surfer buddies! You won't get anywhere in life that way!" Andy said.

"Dad I'm eighteen… I still have a lot of life left. Practically everyone is staying back a year to chill out. Then we will all be gone and you will be ever-so happy, okay?"

"Not _okay_, I'm not going to let you 'chill out'!" Andy growled, "Jake is off on his second year at University without a problem and he didn't stay back a year."

"Big whoop." Dopey said rolling his eyes. Nope, Dopey had not changed one bit since I've known him. He still made Debbie and Kelly flirt and giggle with him (ugh) but he was still the smartass he always was. I could see Andy getting mad so I quietly excused myself, thanking him for the meal, and raced upstairs. I flopped on my bed and sighed, re-reading the letter again. A shimmer appeared and Jesse was now reading it over my shoulder.

"Wow. That is amazing Susannah." Jesse said. "What an opportunity." I rolled my eyes in playfulness and sat up.

"Do you think I should go to the meeting?" I asked.

"Of course _querida_, it really is a good opportunity to meet fellow mediators like yourself."

"Shifter." I said quietly thinking… then shook my head. Jesse grabbed my hand and it _still_ made my stomach do flip flops.

"Susannah, you have nothing to do this year. Why not try this out?" he said. I looked into his eyes, those amazing eyes. I trusted him; of course I did… if I didn't we never would have… never you mind. I punched him playfully in the arm,

"But you have to come with me okay?"

"Duh!" he said trying to mock my century's lingo. I gave him a horrified face and we both broke out laughing. He smiled and I felt a lot better about the whole thing, it was good to have your best friend at your side.

Ceecee had already left for Harvard, she had to leave early to visit family living in that area for a couple weeks before school. We had a very emotional goodbye and _promised_ to call each other at least once a week which had been working out great so far.

Adam had gotten into a college near by to Ceecee, seeing as how they were inseparable, the two lovebirds. Love… it was crazy to think that Jesse and I had been the lovebirds, now we were just friends… I thought about the night it happened,

…_ ..._ "_Querida, maybe it is best that we are just friends?"_

"WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT?" I yelled in frustration. "You don't know what you're saying!" But he just gave a very weak attempt at a smile, his eyebrows up in confusion.

"_I'm not alive." He said._

"_So?" I snapped._

"_Susannah it is best that you moved on." My heart was ripped in half. I just stared at him blankly. "Susannah…" he said gently touching my arm. I moved away from him violently and looked up at him my eyes brimming with tears,_

"_You… can't do this!" I yelled in anger. "How can you say this?" He clearly looked pained,_

"_You think I want to do this? No! But I **have** to do this. Please you need to understand." Jesse said his own eyes looking as if tears would swamp them._

_ I just looked at him, finally noticing the tears running down my face. I could truly not understand. We were so happy together, two people so perfectly made for eachother. He was dead, yes, but this was making me feel so much worse than dead inside. _

_I had had my doubts sometimes, sure, but I would have never done this.  
_

_How could he say this after everything we had been through? It took us so much to be together and now he was throwing it away? Like it was so easy to throw away!_

_ I didn't care about the future, I didn't care about anything but us. Why did he need to care about it? Why was he trying to manage a well adjusted life for me when he was really just ruining the one thing I wanted in my life.  
_

"_No… no, No, NO!" I yelled hoarsely. I turned away from him and sobbed and he gently rubbed my back. I turned into him and cried on his chest for a very long time… …_

Nope! I would NOT go back to thinking of these memories. No way. Not now anyways, everything was fine, months had past since then and now best friends was good enough. I hugged him quickly and smiled,

"I wonder what MED stands for…"

o0o

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Review, as I love to hear your thoughts.

xx Fox


	2. MED

Chapter 2 - MED

o0o

Mediators Expelling the Dead… that's what MED stood for apparently. I was looking at a banner across from one side of the church to the other saying in big bold letters – **Mediators Expelling the Dead** –

Thank god this was a private event, I'm sure if any passerbys came in, they would be _slightly_ confused.

I walked in wearing an off the shoulder, green, cashmere top with dark pants. My hair was washed and blow dyed and looking good. I looked presentable yet sexy. Maybe I could meet someone interesting here. I had only known a couple other mediators my entire life, could count it on one hand. I was curious to see who else would be here, god forbid it was someone I knew...

"Expelling the Dead?" I chuffed, "Sounds like ghost busters or something." I laughed. Jesse gave me a stern look but was smiling. We were walking around the main opening in the church, there were many chairs set up in a half circle around a pedestal with a microphone.

Some people were already there, walking around as well, looking at the various diagrams set up answering questions about the organization and some stories of what they have done in the past.

Some people were giving me second glances, it was either because they were looking at me or noticing I was walking around with a ghost. I was hoping for the first one but guessing it was the second.

"Susannah, lets sit." Jesse said, leading me to some empty chairs. We noticed other people doing the same. There was a buzz of talk in the air and everyone was looking around at each other nervously, I found myself anxious as well.

I looked at some of the people at the meeting; there was a guy with shaggy blonde hair looking dazed. He was sitting all slumped in his chair and he yawned loudly. He looked up at me and I noticed that he was pretty cute, his blue eyes twinkling. 'Surfer dude' I thought instantly. He smiled and I gave a small smile back, hey he _was_ cute okay?

Beside him was a girl with shoulder length brown hair. She was a little round, not fat but rounder, she had brown eyes and she was looking around herself timidly. It puzzled me how people who were introverted or shy could handle seeing ghosts and dealing with their problems without shitting themselves. It could be scary enough, and I was always ready for a fight.

The guy on 'surfer dudes' other side looked young. Probably sixteen or fifteen. He reminded me of Doc, kind of nerdy looking with his ears sticking out a little and he had glasses, except this guy's hair was also kind of shaggy and brown.

I turned around when I heard a shriek of laughter from behind me, I saw Father Dominic (looking exactly like he did when I saw him a month ago) leading a young redhead towards us, she was the one who laughed.

He smiled and told one of his 'legendary' jokes (same ones he tells to everyone, repeatedly) and she laughed her loud laugh again. She, like the rest of the gang - other than the Doc look alike and Jesse - looked around my age. I'm guessing most middle aged people did not feel like joining our little ghost busters group. Since you know, they probably have a life.

Unlike the rest of the gang (other than Jesse) she was dead. She had long, fiercely red hair with shiny brown eyes, she was very pretty. She was wearing a white tank top and light blue jeans… did she die in those? I wondered. She was very happy, definitely a giggly person I was soon noticing, unlike most ghosts (except Jesse) I got up to greet Father Dom, who exclaimed,

"Susannah!" we hugged and he shook Jesse's hand and they gave each other claps on the back like true friends. We all sat down and the buzz of talk began again, the red-head was laughing her head off in a high pitch giggle at something Father Dom said again – since when was he _that_ funny?

I looked around at everyone, wow, what a great bunch - I thought sarcastically; we have Surfer Dude, Paranoia Chic, a giggling red head, an old (but very loveable) priest and Doc the 2nd. Grrrrreat, nothing could top this bunch of whack jobs off –

"Feels good to be back." I heard a familiar drawl. Good god, no. I whirled around to see none other then Paul Slater himself arm and arm with a blonde girl. I let out a small gasp and whirled back around looking panicked.

"Something wrong Susannah?" Jesse asked, then looked back and saw him; "Oh." was all he said to that. Paul and the blonde were about to take a seat – but he saw me,

"Suze..?" he said his eyes wide. I _had_ to look up at him,

"Uh, hey." I said meekly. The blonde on his arm looked me up and down, sizing me up.

"I... I can't believe you're here." Paul said, sounding a little put off. He was looking very attractive in a fitted black leather coat and maroon dress shirt with dark jeans.

"Uh, this _is_ a mediator convention or whatever. I mean, I kind of _do_ live in this part of California… where it's being held…" I said drifting off, looking sarcastic. Paul just smirked,

"Right."

"Come Paulie, let's sit!" The blonde on his arm whined. I almost laughed out loud when she said 'Paulie', Jesse noticed and grabbed my hand and squeezed it reminding me to be polite.

"Still got a thing for the dead?" Paul said, nodding his head at our clasped hands with a laugh. I gave him a dirty look.

"Well in this case…" the blonde said looking at Jesse OBVIOUSLY flirting RIGHT in front of her boyfriend… wait, were they going out?

Yes, uh, I'm guessing so since she JUST pretty well stuck her tongue in his mouth RIGHT in front of us. Um, ew. This was almost too much to handle.

I took this chance to get a good look at her. She was really quite pretty. She had just about shoulder length, shiny blonde hair and light brown eyes, and a nice tan. She wore a small, white mini skirt with ruffles showing off her legs, and a nice low cut, light pink tee-shirt showing off _other_ assets. She looked pretty strictly Californian, like one of the Laguna Beach bitches. I wondered how they met? No, I do not care.

I'm pretty sure I had a disgusted look on my face, but then again so did Jesse as he tried not to watch them. I gave a small cough; hello, rude much Paul? Paul and Miss Blonde stopped and he smiled.

"Having a good time in Seattle?" I asked not actually caring.

"Yeah…" he said, "But I really do miss this place, and certain other things." He winked and I rolled my eyes,

"Uh huh." I said looking off into the distance distractedly.

"Who is your ghost friend?" Blonde asked.

"Rico Suave." Paul laughed – oh gaud, same immaturity as two years ago.

"Jesse de Silva." Jesse said calmly. HOW CAN HE BE SO CALM?

"And you are?" I said looking at Blonde.

"Shannon Hampton." She said, giving her hair a flip with her perfectly manicured nails. She didn't exactly bother asking MY name,

"This is Susannah Simon." Jesse said politely.

"Suze." I said quickly.

"Yes, only Jesse gets to call her _Susannah_." Paul said, with his dumb, evil smile. Father Dom came up FINALLY saving me from this awkward situation and hugged Paul, they talked for a while; Father Dom asked how Paul was doing and so on. I turned to Jesse when they were far enough,

"Paul is back?" I squeaked.

"Do not worry _querida_. I am here. Slater is nothing anymore." He said and I only nodded, memories flooding in my head…

… _... _"_This station sucks." I said whilst I sat in Paul's luxurious sports car and turned the radio to a new station. I still couldn't believe I was actually going to this dance with him._

_The song "We belong together" came on, I practically had a heart attack I switched the radio off so fast; those words just DON'T work with me and Paul. He looked amused at me but kept on driving. We got to the school and he opened the car door for me,_

"_Oh, such the gentleman." I teased and he smiled. _

_We walked into the gym area to see it all set up like an ice land. There were crytalized chandeliers hanging from the ceiling, white silk draping down as well. Fake snow was blowing over the stage, that was set up with a band playing hit songs. White, small twinkle lights were adorned across the room. It was actually very beautiful, hmm… maybe I shouldn't have gotten so mad at Kelly for hiring a decorative crew… speaking of – Kelly came waltzing over towards us in a strapless, tight black dress, her blonde hair in ringlets._

"_Oh my god, Suze! Are those the new Jimmy Choo shoes?" she yelled above the booming music._

"_Yeah." I said._

"_Oh Paulie, you look so handsome!" she squealed. He smiled at her but rolled his eyes towards me making me laugh. A hot guy from our class, Tom, strode up to greet us._

"_Hey babe." He said, kissing Kelly on the cheek._

"_Nice date." I said as he walked away to get Kelly some punch or something. We all kind of stood there awkwardly until Paul gave a quick 'Cya later.' And he led me by the small of my back to the dance floor._

"_That was… weird." I stated and he smiled,_

"_Yeah I can not stand these people." We danced for a while, it was kind of weird at first, slightly awkward, but then I couldn't help but get into the music._

_ Soon a slow song came on, 'Ghost of you' by My Chemical Romance... it wasn't that romantic slow song you would normally hear, but it still made everyone start grabbing a partner and slowly dance._

_We swayed to the music and Paul pushed me in much closer to him so my hands were around his neck and one of his hands was on my hip, the other on the small of my back. I kind of relaxed and leaned into him, he smelt good after all. _

_This song was reminding me of Jesse, the words and all, I thought of him all alone at home… I missed him. I looked up and Paul was looking into my eyes right now; what is with guys and doing that? It made me nervous. But I looked into his light blue eyes and time seemed to almost stop. _

"_You are so beautiful Suze." He whispered into my ear._

"_You have told me like, three times tonight." I said back. Wow romantic Suze._

"_And I really mean it… really." He said looking back into my eyes, he seemed very sincere. I sort of rested my head on his shoulder, his own head buried into my neck which felt good. The song ended and we both moved apart a few inches, his hand still on my hip as the other cupped my face and he drew in closer, kissing me on the lips._

_I didn't protest; the moment seemed perfect, or well, _**_really_**_ good. And he was _**_such_**_ a good kisser. The kiss ended and he looked at me and smiled. _

_Oh no._

_I looked panicked and walked as fast as I could away and outside. I needed to breathe for a second. I leaned against a cold, stone pillar and looked at the palm trees, all stringed with lights for the dance. Paul came up beside me,_

"_What happened back there? You kind of ran off." He asked._

"_I, uh…" I said. I didn't know what to say. That kiss… that kiss was amazing. I really felt something for him back there… I didn't like where this was going._

"_Look, I have a boyfriend!" I pointed out, which was a lie. Maybe half a lie? I really didn't know.  
_

"_It was just a kiss Suze…" Paul said._

"_No, well, whatever. STILL." I stammered. Paul looked at me with an annoyed face, he caught me in my lie, he always catches me,_

"Y_ou always feel guilty because of de Silva!" Paul growled._

"_No!" I said defensively._

"_Yes, and you guys __aren't__ even together!" he said, his eyebrows raised._

"_We made out, that's good enough!" I blurted out, then blushed fiercely and walked quickly off on a small path through the garden beside the school. Why did I always babble and sound like an idiot around him? Why did I blurt that out? He caught up and grabbed my arm, no one was around unfortunately._

"_Suze! You what?" he demanded._

"_You… you heard me." I mumbled. He didn't look shocked but more so disappointed. Maybe he had hoped Jesse would never make a move. "Look it doesn't matter, I want to be with him, not you okay?" I said and tried to walk away. TRY was the key word here; Paul had an iron grip on my wrist._

"_Not okay." He said before kissing me again, this time not ending it where it should have ended. I'll ADMIT it was good, okay great. And OKAY I kissed him back a little. With tongue… ugh. I didn't mean to, it just sort of happened. Until I got my senses together and pulled away breathing heavily,_

"_Paul… stop." I said practically panting._

"_Why?" he was smiling a big dopey grin, oh great._

"_Because!" I said and tried to get away but he was still holding my wrist. "Paul, let me go!" I yelled louder and puller harder but now he grabbed me by both arms,_

"_No." he said simply and kissed me again, this time I had more self restraint and turned my head away but he went for the neck and in my low neck silk dress, there was a lot of kissing to be had and let me tell you it felt good, so good._

_I let out tiny gasps and he knew I was enjoying it; he let go one arm and used his hand to go up my backside on my silk dress, I shivered but in a good way. He was VERY much enjoying this, but I wriggled away from him and he stopped._

"_God, Paul!" I whispered harshly. He just smirked at me and I glared back at him, trying to get away. But apparently nothing was working and he was moving in again to kiss my neck. So I kneed him in the stomach, it seemed like a pretty good idea, he let go then I ran off further down the garden path. He caught up fairly quickly and caught me round the middle, I let out a scream._

"_Paul!" I yelled in panic._

"_You know you like it…" he whispered into my ear. I KNEW I did but I also knew that I loved Jesse so I just couldn't do this with Paul… but apparently he didn't care, I swore at him but he didn't let me go… …_

"AHEM." I snapped back into attention as I heard a loud and exaggerated cough. Everyone went quiet and looked at the lady who gave the cough. She was strict looking, thin and older. Heeeey, she looked a lot like that teacher from Harry Potter… Miss McGonagall! I almost laughed out loud.

"Well, it looks like most of you came today." She said. Heeeey, she talks like her too…

"I am pleased to say that MED was been around for a long time, reaching the ghosts that aggravate people to go to rest and move on." She lectured. I ignored her speech, in a zone, thinking about Harry Potter.

"-So I think we should all go around and introduce ourselves."She said, and I tuned back into her speech. I heard Paul snort in amusement. I didn't know more than half the people's names here so I liked the idea. I cast Paul a dirty look before looking over at the rounder, timid girl as Miss McGonagall-Reloaded told her to begin.

The round girl opened her mouth to speak but then there was a roar of an engine outside the church doors, everyone turned around to see the church doors burst open and a guy around our age come walking in, a red sports car parked right outside the entrance.

He had dark hair – naturally jet black. He walked up in black jeans and a navy blue, good fitting shirt. He looked pretty fit; I could tell even through his shirt, he was also very good looking. All the females in the room were sitting mouth a gape looking at him and his wild entrance. He sat in an empty seat across from me and smiled sheepishly at McGonagall 2.0,

"Yeah… sorry 'bout being late." He said with the slightest Irish accent, looking up at everyone. His eyes caught mine, he had nice hazel eyes, and he winked at me.

"Mr. West you will not be late again or don't show up at all." McG said sternly and he just smiled back. The timid girl started up again,

"H-hi. My name is Aimee." She said looking down at the floor; Shannon made a noise between laughter and disgust. It bugged me a lot. "Um, Aimee Winter." She shut her mouth quickly and was still looking at the floor, she didn't say anymore.

Next was 'surfer dude.' Or 'Nate', which was his real name. Apparently he had been living in California all his life but went to RLS so that's why I didn't recognize him. Then the dorky kid beside him was Marcus, Nate's younger brother.

"Mediation runs in the family." He said with a small smile. Reminded me of Paul and Jack, the whole family mediation thing. Except Nate probably wasn't a sociopathic older brother bent on making people's lives hell, unlike Paul.

Marcus was already done high school, at age sixteen! What a friggen smarty... Nate must feel so intelligent beside him, _not_. The pretty red-head introduced herself next,

"Hi, _giggle_, I'm Hannah! I am well… a ghost!" she laughed, twirling a dark red piece of hair in her fingers. Shannon looked like she was going to throw up. Personally I liked her; she had a cute and bubbly personality. She seemed like she was missing a few IQ points though…

Jesse then introduced himself, and then it was my turn, then Shannon and then Paul. Then Mr. West, who turned out to be Daniel, or Dan or Danny, whatever you wanted; he said.

"Good, well I'm Mrs. Hackteur. I am one of the vice presidents of the MED organization. As I was saying before, MED corporations are in many different countries or areas, I run the California branch. Unfortunately many of the letters we sent out were never replied to or had gone ignored. This is typical as many mediators wish to remain anonymous or wish to try to block such a part of their lives out. We as an organization thank you for bravely coming to this event. " I tuned her little speech out, soon Jesse ended up nudging me and I awoke from my zone to what she was saying,

"-So if you are going with MED you will be under contract with us. It is a job, you do get paid."

"Not as handsomely as some of you might be used to," Father Dom said (please be directing that to Paul!), but the experience is worth a lifetime." Wow, okay, I'm **so **doing this. I mean, I used to do this for free but now it's a job, plus it's something to do for this year right?

Once she ended her little speech, the red head Hannah clapped, looked around noticed no one else doing so, so she stopped instantly. We all got up and started walking around and talking, there was a sign up sheet. I walked up and put "Suze Simon" down and then wrote down Jesse's name too. They (as in ghosts) couldn't be paid but all help was appreciated to lay to rest the ghosts that were harmful to others.

I looked at the list; everyone's name was down except Paul's and bimbo Barbie – uh – I mean Shannon. Grabbing Jesse's hand I waltzed up to him,

"Why aren't you signing up?" I demanded. Paul looked at me with surprise,

"Uh. I don't know. Not really my thing." He answered.

"What helping other people? You _do_ get paid if _that's _your concern." I snapped.

"What about college Suze?" Paul asked sarcastically,

"Everyone here is skipping the year to do this!" I didn't even know if I was right or why I was so angry with him, or at least why I was trying to convince him to go. He just acted like he was better then everyone, it pissed me off, he hadn't changed at all.

"Well they _obviously_ have no future." Paul replied. I glared at him,

"Wow. Thanks." I said sarcastically. He merely shrugged.

"Do not listen to him Susannah, the organization is much better off." Jesse said. Paul glared at him – okay, no lost love here. –

"Quiet down, cowboy." He said and Jesse rolled his eyes. Paul stayed quiet for a few seconds than marched right up to the sign up desk, his girlfriend trailing after him,

"Pa-ul, think about this for a second!" she whined, elongating his name. But he didn't listen and signed his name. Shannon glared at him and signed her name too,

"I'm not leaving _you_ alone with _these _people." She obviously didn't mean mediators because she was one too, she meant competition because when she said it, she glanced at me and Hannah, who was giggling at something Nate just said.

Paul walked back up with Shannon and had an annoyingly pleasant smile on his face,

"There Simon, now we _both_ have no futures." I rolled by eyes at him, placing my hands on my hips. Jesse had apparently found this boring, disappeared, and was talking to Father Dom.

"Maybe _you _don't but I do!" I said and whirled around to stomp off but instead ran right into someone behind me.

"Whoa there!" a guy said, holding me up. I heard the slight Irish accent and smiled, looked up into Daniel's hazel eyes,

"Oh, thanks." I said embarrassed. Paul had an amused look on his face.

"Graceful Suze." He said smirking.

"Fine with me." Daniel said, still holding me. Paul's amused face slowly turned to an annoyed look.

"You can let go now." He hissed at Daniel, who looked back at Paul like, 'And you are?' I smiled, playing it up a bit,

"Oh thanks for catching me Danny, _giggle_, you are so strong!" I said touching his biceps. Ugh, fuck, I sounded like Kelly. Paul looked skeptic and annoyed. I only played the part up though; I mean why not have a little fun? Dan smiled and finally let me go,

"Anytime babe." He said smiling. I smiled coyly back at him as he walked away, Shannon was off talking to Jesse and Father Dom, staring at Jesse's ass when she could. The statue of Mary should cry. Paul just stood, staring at me.

"What?" I demanded.

"You haven't changed." He said lightly.

"Wow thanks." I said sarcastically, I was so bitter around him…

"No, I mean, you _have _changed, oh boy, you have, in certain ways. But in some... you are the same as I remember." He said with a small smile on his lips.

"Same to you." I said with a flip on my hair and prepared to yet again stomp off like a child but he grabbed my wrist and I whirled back around. I looked at his tan hand on my pale wrist, my eyes wide.

"Don't walk away when I'm trying to talk to you." He said. I looked up at him, memories flooding in…

… _..._"_Paul… please…" I whined, he had pinned me down on the cool grass and was kissing my neck, his hands pushing my arms down over my head, I felt so helpless. I _**_was_**_ helpless. Any other guy and I seriously would have killed them by now, but not Paul._

_I felt so weak with him, I wanted to give in so bad but my heart would never let me._

_He stopped point blank and looked into my eyes, a moment passing between us. I lifted my head very slowly to meet his and kissed him on the lips, he returned the favour and we made out in the grass for a while. _

_I don't know why I did it, but as soon as I saw him stop I wanted it to continue. _

_My hands were around his neck, my fingers running through his soft hair; his own hand was on my hip and the other was behind my neck. I was slowly giving in to him, I wanted him and he clearly wanted me._

_He got up and lifted me with him as I held on his neck, tightly kissing him some more. We stumbled backwards and he had to tear away from my mouth to look where he was going. He led me back to his car and we hoped inside the back seat. I took this time to just breathe. He started to kiss me again and I found myself lying down on the seats, him on top of me._

_I moved my head away from his lips and he kissed my jaw scorching the skin there. His hands apparently were having a _**_lovely_**_ tour (sheesh) of my upper body which I didn't mind._

_I looked around a bit getting my head back in order… the car windows were getting foggy from our heat, my hair was now out of the cute pin up and the my dress was getting crooked._

"_Stop." I breathed and he looked at me with concern,_

"_What's wrong? Are you okay?" He asked. I sat up knocking him off me and I pulled my dress up in place,_

"_We can't do this." I said looking at him with confusion in myself._

"_We already are." He stated plainly._

"_Then... then we have to stop." I said, sitting up more. He sighed heavily,_

"_Not de Silva again?" he said with a groan._

"_No, I just, look it doesn't matter. We can't do this." I said crossing my arms. Paul looked at me with so much perplexity and unreadable emotions._

"_What?" I said defensively._

"_You just confuse me Suze. God, what do you want from me?" he asked angrily._

"_What?" I gasped. From _**_him_**_?_

"_You keep fucking around with my brain! You are so distant from me, then you freaking make out with me, and then you get distant again." He argued._

"_Well… hmph." I just snorted. He had a point but I chose to ignore it. "My body may want you," I said with blushing cheeks, "but my heart loves Jesse. My heart doesn't want you, it never did." I said, regretting it instantly because Paul's face suddenly caved in and looked really hurt._

_He opened the door and got out of the car, slamming it. I just sat, alone in silence. I looked in the mirror; my hair was still glossy except now it hung around my shoulders._

_I got out of the car and saw Paul walking, his hands in his pants pockets towards the garden again. I followed him,_

"_Paul! Paul just wait!" I yelled after him, running to catch up. I caught up with him right as he was walking past the large fountain in the garden. I lightly touched his arm and he violently spun around and was glaring at me,_

"_Suze WHAT?" he yelled. I stared back at him in horror,_

"_I… I don't know…" I whispered, holding back tears. He just looked at me in disgust._

"_Then don't talk to me." He said and I looked down trying not to cry.  
_

"_Suze I really like you okay? So stop screwing around." He said, his own voice wavering in between hurt and anger. I looked at him, not knowing what to say. I didn't understand my feelings for him. So what could I say? I didn't even know. I knew I felt something. But I also knew that I loved Jesse._

_ "Sorry, I can't..." I mumbled and turned to walk away but he quickly grabbed my wrist and pulled me into a forceful kiss, his emotions so sporadic, I tried to push away and we both ended up falling sideways in the pond sized fountain._

_I stood up and gasped, I was soaking wet… my gown, my beautiful gown! MY SHOES! RUUUUUUUUINED! Paul got up as well and was wide eyed in shock._

"_Look what you did!" I yelled at him, getting out of the fountain. "This is the worst night ever!" I screamed at him angrily. He stared at me, at a loss. I didn't think he would believe my words…_ …

I looked back down at the hand on my wrist and pulled it away glaring at him,

"Don't touch me." I growled. He looked a little taken back at my sudden hostility,

"Whatever Suze." He said glaring. "I was just going to say that this is going to be a rough time working together so let's not get too riled up if I make fun of your dead boyfriend okay?" he said teasingly.

"Whatever." I muttered, turning around and walking up to Jesse grabbing his hand and holding on. I could feel Paul's anger from behind me. This _was_ going to be a long few months indeed...

o0o


	3. Thinking Back

Chapter 3: Thinking Back

oOo

Soon everything I was bringing along was packed. I hadn't known we were leaving the area on our first assignment but I had kind of zoned out half of Mrs. Hackteur's speech anyways so I guess I missed it. It had taken a while to convince my mom to let me go, and **no**, of course I didn't tell her it had to do with 'mediators'.

Come on, if I _wanted_ to go to the loony bin… My mother would never, _could_ never, be able to really believe in such things as ghosts. She was so well grounded in everything having a 'reason' and ghosts didn't really fit into any of that.

But I ended up having to get Mrs. Hackteur to come OVER to my house (_awkward_) and explain to my mom that this trip was for a good cause of helping people (ha, dead ones) and I would be getting paid and plus, it would look good on any college or university résumé. It was a good enough cover, some humanitarian work here and there, she lapped it up.

That last little detail made my mom agree to it, it was better then what Dopey was doing all year, 'chilling out…' I finally zipped up my Louis Vuitton makeup bag and laid back on the bed, sighing. Jesse appeared standing by my bedside, his eyes wide.

"Things have changed a lot since my day _querida_, but we never had so many bags for such a journey!" he said laughing. I sat up more; I did have a few more bags than required. Oh well, a girl needs her clothes.

"Have your things packed Jesse?" I asked teasingly.

He glared at me, but with a smile, then he pulled me into him as he sat on the bed and tickled me. One thing that I can NOT stand is to be tickled, I'm very ticklish and I just couldn't act tough through this one,

"Ha, ha!" I laughed, "Ha, Jesse… STOP! HAHA!" I felt like I couldn't breathe I was laughing so hard. Finally he did stop, still straddling me, sitting on my hips with a winning grin.

"That was too easy _querida_." He said with a chuckle. I laughed as well but stopped as he rested his body by putting one arm on either side of my head and leaning in close to my face.

With just my short pj bottoms on and a tank top, I suddenly felt really bare… I looked up into his eyes, his amazing eyes. I felt like I couldn't breathe, remembering it so clear…

… …"_Happy 18th Birthday querida." Jesse said smiling. I smiled happily back at him, my birthday had rocked so far. I had spent most of the day with Ceecee and Adam, and then most of the afternoon with my family, celebrating._

_I was overall just having a good day. But tonight topped it all off, Jesse and I were sitting on the window seat in my room, and I was with him and in his arms, both of us looking into each other's eyes. _

"_Are you having a good birthday Susannah?" Jesse asked, "I hope you have." _

"_I have had a great day Jesse. And now I'm with you." I said and reached my head up, lightly kissing him on the lips._

"_Susannah…" Jesse said looking sad, "I feel horrible that I could not get you anything." He is just __so__ cute sometimes._

"_Jesse I'm just glad you're here with me. I know you couldn't get me anything, so it's okay." I said gently._

"_It does not feel okay. I just wish I could give you more, you deserve much more, querida." He said sadly. I sighed lightly,_

"_All I want is you." I breathed. He smiled and kissed me slowly on the lips. This of course led to much, much more. Soon we were kissing pretty passionately, I felt wobbly standing up and kissing him, and I felt like I would melt in his arms. _

_We ended up sort of falling onto the bed, him on top of me. I put my hands underneath his shirt and felt his hard muscles. This ended up with his shirt coming off and mine in the process. Boy, we were moving fast. _

_His hands were politely on my hips but soon they were coming up my stomach. I didn't feel embarrassed, in just my black bra and jeans, I wanted this to never stop… these feelings. _

_My head was resting on a soft, down pillow. Jesse had his arms on each side of my head so not to weigh too much on me. He looked into my eyes again and we just sort of stared for a few seconds._

_We both really wanted this. We started making out again but with even more passion (if possible) and this time his hands didn't exactly stay gentleman-ish. It made me shiver in a way good way and I couldn't stop my self from letting out little gasps or moans._

_I was unbuckling his pants, I couldn't stop myself. We couldn't stop now… …_

I opened my eyes up wide remembering things, and there was a knock at my door. My mother opened it,

"Susie?" she asked for me. Jesse was still straddling me from when he had tickled me. He fell back off me like I was on fire; he fell to the floor with a bang and looked up, his eyes wide, matching mine. He dematerialized leaving me and my mother alone. She couldn't hear him fall anyways.

"Honey I swear I heard you laughing up here." She said looking around in my room questionably.

"Oh, I… I was talking to Ceecee on the phone a few minutes ago." I said quickly thinking of an excuse for the laughing I did earlier when Jesse was tickling me.

"Oh how is she doing?" my mother asked cheerfully.

"Great." I said getting up and putting my makeup bag with the other bags. I had talked to Cee earlier though. Her and Adam knew about the mediator stuff now, I had told them sometime in senior year about it all. I couldn't keep lying to them about the strange things that would go on around me, they were getting suspicious, just like Gina had.

Plus I so badly wanted to talk about everything with Jesse. I had even introduced Jesse to them. They couldn't see him but he could pick up random things in the room as they watched in pure amazement and horror.

I had filled her in on everything with MED.

"Shannon sounds like a whore." Adam joked, on our three way call.

"Yes." I said.

"What the fuck, Paul is there!" Ceecee yelled.

"!"

"Can I come?" Adam joked but was half serious.

I shook my head with a smile thinking of our conversation.

"I can't believe you're leaving tomorrow." My mother said quietly, interrupting my thoughts, but I could hear it in her voice that she was going to cry.

"Mom, it's only to Newport. Not exactly out of the country. Or state." I said laughing lightly. She took me into a strong hug,

"I know, I know. It's just you're so young! I'm going to miss you, that's all." She said tearfully.

"I'm eighteen mom. I'll be fine. Plus you wanted me to go to college at this age anyways…" I said slowly not wanting her to start bawling or anything (oh please don't.)

"I know honey. I didn't realize how much I would have missed you." She said and then finally let go of the death grip and grabbed me by the shoulders,

"And Susannah Simon you better not be running off with any boys." She said sternly.

"Uh, okay Mom…" I said trying not to laugh.

"It's **not** funny Suze! You are a pretty young girl, no; woman, and I don't want you getting into trouble. You are pretty good at that." She said warningly but also smiling. I smiled back,

"Sure Mom. I'll try." She hugged me once more and I hugged her back hard. I was really going to miss her too…

oOo

They had rented a touring bus for us to travel in for the next couple of months. (Ohhh, fancy!) It was a nice bus; plush blue velvet covered seats with a TV every so often so we could watch movies. The bus driver was a big guy by the name, 'Mr. McCoy.'

He seemed very jolly so hey, it's good to have a good bus driver. Everyone's luggage was put in the back and people were getting ready to get on the bus.

I already said my goodbyes with the family back at the house earlier this morning and now I got on the bus alone and picked a spot near the back to sit. I relaxed and closed my eyes, wanting to just sleep the whole way there.

"Let's find a seat near the back." I heard a familiar voice say. Guess no sleep for me. Paul and his girlfriend walked to the back of the bus only to find me a few seats ahead.

"Oh." was all he said.

"Let's sit in the front Paul." Shannon said, not taking her eyes off me.

"Why?" he said looking confused and sat down on the seat across the aisle from me. Shannon groaned and sat next to him, against the window.

Daniel and Nate came on next and sat directly in the seats in front of me. They were laughing about something from last night, from what I could tell they had gone to a pub or something and played pool last night, obviously becoming fast friends.

Marcus, Nate's younger brother came on the bus and sat at the front of the bus not giving any of us a second glance.

Then Aimee came on, she walked slowly but stopped a few seats away from all of us and then sat on her own. She seemed just a _little_ scared. I felt kind of bad for her but there was nothing to be so timid about.

Hannah materialized on the bus right beside me on the window seat. I gave her a polite smile and then turned my attention to Father Dom who sat behind Marcus and then Mrs. Hackteur who got on the bus and cleared her throat loudly.

"Alright now, it will take approximately three hours to get to the Grand Matre hotel where we are staying and our first assignment is there. We will be taking a few breaks along the way. Please try to stay seated and act civilized!" she said sternly before taking a seat across from Father Dom. Sha-eesh, what an inspiring speech.

If you didn't notice I was being sarcastic. The bus started and took off; I looked past Hannah and out the window.

"Hey!" she said cheerfully.

"Uh, hi." I said, "Why are you here?" I asked not _trying_ to be rude.

"You want to know how I died?" she breathed, looking confused. I felt like laughing but I restrained myself,

"No, I mean on the bus. Jesse is a ghost as well but he is going to meet us at the hotel when we get there." I said.

"I wanted to come and join you guys on the bus, it will be fun!" she said laughing. I just smiled and nodded my head; she definitely had a way of cheering people up.

I glanced sideways towards Paul and Shannon who were talking quietly towards each other. All of a sudden Nate was turned around in his seat and smiling,

"Hey dudettes, want to play cards with us?" he asked, his shaggy blonde hair in his face.

"Yeah!" Hannah agreed loudly.

"Sure." I said, Nate and Danny smiled.

"Anyone else want to join?" Hannah asked loudly to the bus. Aimee turned around in her seat but didn't take up the offer, Paul looked over but Shannon took his hand in hers and whispered into his ear and he smiled and turned back to her.

Okay they can just whisper for the next three hours and be RUDE. So we all started playing cards, '21' at first, then 'Crazy Eights' then 'Cheat' and a few others.

It lasted for a while. We were having a lot of fun I had to admit, especially in Cheat because we all kept trying to do things like put down six cards sneakily and make it look like four. Soon we started all getting really loud and shouting out 'CHEAT!' to each other. Hannah would always shriek with laughter when someone got caught (which was quite frequently.)

"Two 3's." Daniel said. And I looked up at him, looking into his hazel eyes. He was smiling coolly back at me, no one was saying anything and Nate was about to go on his turn.

"Cheat." I said calmly. Nate looked up at me and then Daniel,

"Check it!" Nate said excitedly and Daniel slowly flipped the cards to reveal one 3 and one 7. I smiled and Daniel was forced to take a massive pile of cards with him, Hannah saying 'ohhhhhh' as he did so.

"How did you know?" Daniel asked, still smiling good naturedly.

"Good guess." I said grinning.

"Shifters," Paul interupted, looking over at us all, "are very good at reading people." Everyone just sort of stared at him.

"You're a shifter Suze?" Daniel asked.

"Uh, Yeah." I shrugged.

"Whoa Dude! I totally heard about them. That's awesome." Nate said laughing.

"I thought they were myths like unicorns!" Hannah said excitedly.

"I didn't know we _had_ shifters on this bus let alone if there were such things." Daniel said looking at me curiously.

"Oh yes, there is." Paul said matter-o-factly. "I am one of them too." He said proudly. I rolled my eyes,

"Let's just get back to the game."

"Why didn't you tell us Suze?" Hannah asked, her big brown eyes wide.

"I didn't really think about it. It's nothing I _brag_ about." I said, shooting a look at Paul.

"Good times, good times…" Paul said chuckling lightly making me give him a sour look.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Daniel demanded.

"Yes… what?" Shannon asked, sheesh - I thought she was asleep.

"Never mind." I said loudly and sharply and they all dismissed it. Dan gave me a funny look before returning back to the card game. Paul closed his eyes to sleep with a pleasant grin on his face. Way to make me look like a bitch, Paul! Grrr…

oOo

We got our first pit stop at a gas station about half an hour later. It was our 'bathroom' break as Mrs. Hackteur put it, and also to fill up the bus with fuel.

Everyone got off the bus for the bathroom break and to buy much needed snacks or magazines. I didn't go to the bathroom; if _you_ saw what these washrooms looked like then you would hold it back too. I was vaguely looking at the magazine rack in the small gas station store.

Mrs. Hackteur never left the bus (you could **see** her distaste for dirty places on her face), and Father Dom was paying the bill for the gas. Mr. McCoy was filling the bus up with fuel and the rest of the passengers were wandering around inside or using the bathrooms.

"You got money for that?" the cashier asked lazily. Okay, it's not like I'm going to STEAL it. Give me more then five more seconds you imbecile! Ha, too bad I didn't say that out loud. I fished for some cash in my pockets, nothing. _Great_ I left all my money in my bags.

"I got it." I heard from behind me, I whirled around to be face to face with Dan.

"It's okay, it's just a magazine." I said.

"I know." He answered simply and paid.

"Thanks." I murmured. We both walked out of the small store and sat on the curb of the sidewalk, waiting for the others.

"So," Daniel sighed after a moment of silence, "All powerful shifter doesn't have change for a magazine?" he said but in a joking tone. I gave him a look.

"I'm just kidding Suze." He said giving me a playful nudge. I gave a weak smile and gazed out into the distance. What was I doing here? Was this just another stupid mistake? I let out a sigh, thinking about some of the things in my life.

"I didn't mean to upset you." Danny said suddenly. I looked at him, his black hair was looking really soft… whoa, Suze keep the hormones in check.

"No, no. It's nothing you said." I said giving him a smile. My attention turned to Paul and Shannon who came walking out of the store with a ding of the little bell above the store door. My face darkened a bit. WHY ME? I was stuck on this trip with him…

… … _I sat in silence in Paul's car as he drove me home. My silver dress was still wet against me, my shoes felt soggy from the fountain fall. Once we got to my house, I flung myself out of the car and slammed the car door angrily. Paul got out and followed me,_

"_Suze…" he started. I whipped around causing my wet hair to stick to my face. I wiped it back and glared at him._

"_What now?" I said in a low tone. He looked at me sadly,_

"_Suze I didn't mean to ruin your dress…" he said and kind of broke off looking into my eyes._

"_Not to mention my shoes." I grumbled. Paul sighed deeply,_

"_But you really need to decide." He said._

"_What?" I snapped._

"_Jesse or me." He said, not even making fun of Jesse by saying 'Rico Suave' or something. He was really serious. _

"_Wow Paul, you want to ask me this _**_now_**_. I'm all sopping wet because of you…" I growled._

"_Suze I don't care!" he yelled causing me to take a step back. "God…" he said, holding his head in his hands. He sighed again running his fingers through his hair and looked at me, truly tormented. _

"_I can't _**_not_**_ like you okay? So I need you to stop messing around with me because you know I'll always do so. Just choose!" he said. I stood there, looking at him. My heart was screaming 'JESSE!' but my mouth wouldn't move. _

"_I…" I whispered and he looked at me with full attention. I couldn't do it. His face, tonight, everything. I knew if I said it, it would tear him apart. I looked down at the ground and then next moment I knew he was holding my hand and with the other, he lifted my chin so I was looking at him. _

"_Please Suze." He said. The wind was blowing around us, causing me to shiver, my hair blowing around me. (Hey at least it was drying now.) _

"_Paul… I… can't…" I whispered into the wind and he squeezed my hand,_

"_I need you to. I really need to know… if there is a point to us." Paul said, very emotionally I might add. I kissed him on the lips softly, taking my hand away from his and backed up,_

"_I'm sorry." I barely managed to breathe out, tears in my eyes. A full moon was shining down on us in the dark night, making it light enough for me to see his face crumble. _

"_So that's it?" he said._

"_I… I don't know." I said trying really hard not to just start crying. _

"_So…" he said, I could hear him trying to get control of his voice, "You choose… him."_

"_Jesse." I breathed out. Everything went eerily silent. Some palms tree's in the yard were swaying in the wind, and I could make out the crash of waves from the ocean from afar._

_I tried to look away from him but I couldn't tear my eyes away from his face. He finally looked up at me, anger in his face but sadness in his eyes._

"_HE'S DEAD SUZE! WHY ARE YOU DOING THIS TO YOURSELF? YOU ARE GOING TO END UP DEAD LIKE THAT TOO!" He yelled._

"_What are you talking about?" I asked, trembling._

"_You are going to waste your life on HIM." He spat out. "He isn't alive Suze… You are going to end up wasting your time on him, and then die. Then what? What is _**_that_**_? Nothing." _

"_Love." I whispered. _

"_What?" he snapped, but I knew he had heard me._

"_I love him Paul. I love Jesse de Silva." I said loudly and smiled in spite of the situation. Paul just stared back at me, wide eyed. Then he got angry. This apparently was not the answer he wanted. He grabbed my wrist forcefully and looked me in the eyes,_

"_Wrong answer Suze." He said in a very annoyed tone. As hot as Paul Slater is (which is really hot) I suddenly didn't feel giddy like I normally did when his skin touched mine, this time I felt scared. _

"_Paul…" I began,_

"_No!" he shouted angrily. WHERE was ANYONE right now? I glanced at the house, all the lights were off and the cars weren't on the driveway. They went out – go figure. _

"_No Suze." Paul continued, "I won't let you waste away your life when you can spend your time with me." Big ego much?_

"_Who says I want to spend it with you?" I hissed back at him, finally finding my strength. Paul glared at me, his grip getting tighter. _

"_I do." He said viciously. You know the strength I found? Yeah… gone now. I was getting very scared of him. He, being Paul and a shifter and all, was _**_very_**_ capable of things. He pulled me into a forceful kiss but I pushed him back with my hands, his own hands grabbed my arms so I couldn't run off. _

"_Paul, stop it!" I yelled at him._

"_You weren't saying that earlier in the car!" he said glaring. _

"_Well… wait, yes I did!" I defended._

"_Well, then in the garden, actually I remember distinctly you reaching up to kiss me!" He yelled. ...Okay, he had me there._

"_Well… I…" I said thinking of some sort of excuse._

"_Admit it Suze, you felt something for me back there. Almost as if you lo-"_

_I cut him off,_

"_It was nothing, just the heat of the moment!" I said, still trying to get away but he had a good grip on me. "You're just mad because you can't have what you want!" I said._

"_No Suze, this is different… because I've never felt for someone that way I do about you!" he said shouting at me, with something in his eyes I didn't recognize. _

"_Stop being stupid Paul." I growled but he pulled me into him, causing me to almost squeak._

"_You're the one being stupid." He hissed into my ear. I tried wiggling away from him but it wasn't working. Suddenly a fist connected into Paul's face and it wasn't mine._

_Paul fell back a few feet holding his face with his hand letting out a groan. I looked over my shoulder to see Jesse standing there, fists clenched looking murderous._

"_Jesse!" I practically screamed and hugged him tightly._

"_Querida…" he said stroking my wet hair and then pulled away, "Nombre los Dios, Susannah…what happened? You are soaking…" he said then turned his attention on Paul who was getting up slowly. Good punch._

"_Slater." Jesse growled his hands pulled into fists again. Paul moved his hand away from his nose, blood on his hand._

"_Oh COME ON!" He sighed frustrated. "Do you have to always ruin _**_everything_**_ de Silva?" he snapped. _

"_I think I just saved Susannah here." Jesse answered. Paul glared at Jesse, his hands forming fists too. Oh no. Paul lunged at Jesse and they both started grabbing fistfuls of each other's clothes and the other fist was punching whatever it could._

_As romantic as two, hot guys fighting over you seems… it really was scary. Even though Jesse couldn't die, what if Paul shifted him away? And Paul certainly could die or get seriously injured. Not like I cared _**_that_**_ much about him right now but I knew I had to stop this._

"_Guys! Stop!" I yelled to them, but they didn't listen. Paul was now grabbing two fists full of Jesse's shirt and yelling at him angrily,_

"_Always have to butt in don't you? But where were you when you precious 'Susannah' was with me, kissing me on _**_her_**_ choice?" he yelled with a smirk on his face. No, NO! He did _**_not_**_ just say that._

_Jesse shoved him back and Paul tripped and fell back to the gravel on the ground. Jesse lunged at him and was on top of him punching Paul's face over and over again._

"_No!" I screamed shrilly. "Jesse stop, you're going to kill him!" I said, tears streaming down my face I was so scared. Jesse didn't stop until Paul threw him off and then started to punch Jesse. _

"_Stop it, both of you STOP!" I cried, banging on Paul's back trying to get him off Jesse. It was like Paul couldn't even feel it he was that mad at Jesse._

_Jesse managed to grab Paul's head and head butt him causing Paul to roll off him in pain, it looked like it hurt Jesse as well, but they both swiftly got up and started hitting each other again. I tried to grab someone's arm, ANYONE, but a loose punch hit me in the side of my head. _

_I fell down, my god, IT HURT. I blinked away stars. They both stopped and looked down at me in horror._

"_Suze!" Paul said,_

"_You've done enough." I snapped and let Jesse help me up. _

"_You are both idiots." I said angrily, "Stop fighting!" _

"_If Slater didn't say or do such things…" Jesse said glaring at Paul._

"_ME?" Paul said raving like a lunatic, "WHAT ABOUT HER? YOU WANT TO ASK WHAT SHE WAS DOING TONIGHT?" he yelled and my blood practically froze._

"_No." Jesse said simply and I looked up at him thankful he didn't say 'yes'. Jesse put one arm under me, helping me stand in case I would fall._

_Paul looked angrily from Jesse and then to me. My heart suddenly was in my throat, it was his eyes. Oh, his eyes… they were full of such sadness and full of torment. 'Over me' I thought suddenly. My eyes filled with tears and I couldn't breathe as he himself looked like he was going to cry._

_But of course he wouldn't. He turned around walking slowly, his eyes still on me until he fully turned around and his back was to me._

_He walked over to his car, and with a roar of the engine he was gone. I let out a much needed gasp of air and breathed in raspily, tears pouring out of my eyes._

_I couldn't breathe properly and Jesse suddenly brought me into a hug, my head resting on his shoulder. _

"_It's okay querida…" Jesse was saying and he was also whispering things in Spanish into my hair. I looked up into the sky at the moon, it was such a beautiful night but I felt terrible. I had broken Paul's heart, as much as I tried to pretend that he didn't care… he really did._

_And as much as I tired not to care, I did. As much as I loved Jesse… I had also loved Paul that night, for a tiny moment. In a horrible way... I had fallen in love with Paul._

_I cried in Jesse's arms. Jesse thought it was because of Paul and the fight. But it was a different reason to do with Paul. I had felt something for him, earlier that night._

_And now I had broken his heart and a little piece of mine. As much as I loved and wanted Jesse… I wasn't going to forget that… _…

'It's like a ghost haunting me. Leave me alone.' The words of a song drifted in my head, reminding me of my memories. Daniel was watching Paul carefully and my face; he could tell.

"Some sort of past between you two?" he asked with his slight Irish inflection. I looked back into his big, hazel eyes.

"Uh, yeah. We had a past." I said shrugging, looking back to Paul who was getting back on the bus after Shannon. He glanced at me, his foot on the first step, and then he stopped for a moment and just, stared at me. His face was expressionless but then turned to curiosity. He looked back up towards the bus and got on, following Shannon. I turned back to Dan,

"Whatever though." I said smiling to him. He smiled back,

"So… you and the cowboy dude. Uh, Jesse." He said. Oh no, DON'T call him that, no.1 Jesse hates it, no.2 It was just like Paul.

"Yes?" I said slowly.

"You two… well okay, I know this sounds kind of dumb but…" he started,

"No, we aren't together. We used to be, but not anymore." I said laughing as his face turned to a relived look.

"Oh, okay. Good." He said laughing too. We noticed other people getting on the bus and Daniel got up from the curb, extending his hand down to pull me up.

"Thanks." I said smiling at him.

"No prob." He answered, smiling slyly.

Maybe this wasn't going to be _all that_ bad…

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**Review! xx Fox**


	4. The Grand Matre Hotel

o0o

Chapter 4: The Grand Matre Hotel

… … _My breath was ragged, so was his. I could see his chest rising and falling but the funny thing was, was that he didn't need air. But apparently he seemed to think so; it had been so real. 'This is real.' I remembered. I couldn't look at him anymore so I rolled over, my back facing him. I felt cold against the sheets; I suddenly realized what just happened. Jesse and I had had –_

"_Querida…" Jesse said, placing a hand on my side causing me to shiver in a WAY good way. I still couldn't look at him; I was feeling way too many emotions at once. A HUGE part of me was feeling really good, I loved Jesse and this was right. Another part felt scared, very scared. There was a mixture of anger with myself; I had no self control over what happened, but part of me felt like I wanted to do it again. _

"_Susannah, look at me." Jesse said, tugging on my arm a little. I turned around to face him, making sure the covers were hiding me. NOT like he hasn't ALREADY seen me but whatever. _

"_Yes?" I barely managed to whisper. Jesse looked into my eyes and sighed,_

"_Oh querida…" he sighed, "I did not mean to offend you." His eyes were filled with concern for me, but I could also see a hint of lust and a lot of love. _

"_Offend?" I asked, sometimes I didn't understand his 1850's-ish ways. _

"_Are we going too fast? I mean... This was a big step…" he said. BIG step is right._

"_No." I said quietly. "You didn't… offend." Jesse was now brushing a stray strand of hair behind my ear and looked at me lovingly._

"_Oh Susannah, I can see it in your eyes… You are not ready. I am so sorry."_

"_Don't be." I said quickly, "We both had no control. And, I don't regret anything that happened." I said thinking about what I was even saying. I honestly didn't regret it… besides that it was my birthday and everything seemed perfect, what topped it all off was that it was with Jesse. I was so in love with him and that is what mattered most._

"_Did I… hurt you then?" Jesse asked, trying not to be awkward. I could tell that he didn't know what to say, I could barely speak myself,_

"_No…" I whispered. He looked into my eyes lovingly,_

"_Querida…" he started but broke off. We stayed silent for a while,_

"_I have no regrets of this night Susannah…" Jesse started, his voice stronger, "But… you are young and I wish we waited. Well part of me, a big part, is very happy we did not." He said chuckling lightly and I smiled,_

"_No Jesse, don't wish for anything but of what happened. It… it was perfect this way." I said smiling bigger now._

"_I love you querida." He said looking into my eyes as we laid there. It felt so good, every time he said it. I smiled shyly back at him,_

"_I love you." I said back and we both knew we truly meant it… _…

What happened to us? I thought, looking out the bus window. Practically everyone was asleep; we should be close to the hotel soon. Hannah had dematerialized about an hour ago to wherever ghosts go. The sun was almost done hiding itself beyond the trees as I watched it sink into the coming night.

We realized the truth, I thought. How could we work? He was a ghost, and I was alive. We had tried and it had worked for some time, but then we knew… I think he always knew deep down that one day I would have to move on and him too. It just took me longer to figure it out. I was still figuring it out. I sighed and closed my eyes trying to get some sleep.

I heard someone sit in the seat next to me causing me to open me eyes (wishing I could just sleep) and look at the person next to me. Daniel.

"Hey." He said cheerfully.

"Uh, hey." I said with a small smile.

"Just thought you needed some company." He said after a moment of silence.

"Oh, thanks." I said to him and closed my eyes to sleep again.

"So," he said conversationally, "What do you think of everything so far?" I opened my eyes again,

"What?" I asked.

"You know… the organization and all."

"Oh, right, it's… cool." I said lamely. He smirked and took it as a hint as I closed my eyes for the second time since he sat down. By the time I woke up we were probably about five minutes away from the hotel. My head was resting on Danny's shoulder and his head was back on his seat; he was asleep.

I yawned and kept my head on his shoulder, it felt comfortable. My eyes were partly open, as I heard someone coming down the aisle; it was Paul walking back to his seat. He looked at me and Danny; we must have looked pretty chummy, me leaning on him and all. Paul was looking at us questioningly before sitting down beside Shannon. I fell back asleep and all too soon was gently being shaken awake.

"Suze, com'mon, we're here." Danny said. I sat up groggily and yawned loudly. Everyone was slowly filing out off the bus. Dan helped me up in my sleepy condition and we walked off the bus. The hotel was huge, and looked very expensive.

The words 'The Grand Matre Hotel' were big, in fancy writing at the front, a red carpet leading to the big glass doors. We all walked inside, after grabbing our luggage, the doormen were holding the doors for us and saying things like,

"Welcome to The Grand Matre Hotel." Or "Thanks for choosing to stay at The Grand Matre Hotel." Like programmed robots or something. Mrs. Hackteur and Father Dom went to the front desk and got the keys to our rooms, after a short journey through the huge main desk area (fit with gold railing stairways and marble flooring) we got to our rooms. We occupied four rooms on the 7th floor. Mrs. Hackteur opened one door to a beautiful room with four beds.

"Nate, Marcus, Daniel and Paul." She said addressing each person, "This is your room, here is the key." She said handing one of the brass keys to Daniel as the three of them walked in. 'Three' is the key world there. Shannon was holding onto Paul's arm and whining, (was she good at _anything_ else?)

"Me and Paul don't get a room?" she said looking devastated.

"Don't be absurd!" Mrs. Hackteur said sharply, "You will be in the rooms I assign you." She said and Paul gave Shannon's arm a reassuring squeeze before walking into his room. Probably reassuring her that, 'oh yes, don't worry I'll be back later to have sex with you.' Not in MY room, that's for sure.

Mrs. Hackteur walked to the closest room across from the boy's room and opened it. It also had four beds, and was just as grand. Though only three people would be sleeping in here seeing as how Hannah was a ghost. She thrust the key in Aimee's hand and then gave Father Dom his key and kept her own. They each get a room to themselves? So unfair... Meh, their old.

"My bed will be the one beside the window!" Shannon declared. As if I cared. I picked the one over from Shannon and Aimee put her luggage on the one beside mine and the door. It took a while to unpack everything, especially since Shannon decided that she had to take up practically all of the room in the closet.

After a couple of glares and comments from me, she gave us (Aimee and I) more room. Someone knocked on our door and I looked up from my suitcase to see Paul knocking on the open door with his knuckle.

"We got a meeting ladies." He said. Aimee quickly got up and walked out of the room obediently and I couldn't help but let out a small laugh.

"What's so funny Susie?" Shannon asked. ARG! Does she add 'ie' on everyone's names?

"It's Suze." I growled. But she ignored me and linked arms with Paul.

"Oh! Wait!" she said running back into the bathroom, "I'll be a sec, I need to straighten my hair!" she yelled back to us. I looked at the on-suite bathroom door in shock. SOMEONE was vain. It was a meeting not a party, her hair wasn't even that messed up anyways. She seemed to have to look perfect ALL the damn time.

I got up and walked to the door where Paul stood waiting for Shannon. I waited with him for a few seconds as well, being polite. Then I sighed and walked out, to my surprise Paul walked with me.

"Shouldn't you be waiting for her?" I asked.

"Who _knows_ how long it's going to take." He said laughing slightly. I gave a small smile and we walked to the stairs in silence. I really could have used the elevators but all the stairs were so big and grand and red carpeted, plus I was wondering if Paul would really follow me down the long and twisty seven flights of stairs. Which he did.

"I like these stairs." He said and I just nodded in agreement.

"So…" he started. I KNEW he came for more then walking down these stairs. Dammit. "So, this is weird." He said.

"What you talking about stairs still or…?" I said giving a sarcastic look. He smiled,

"No, just seeing you after years." He said.

"Oh." I said, almost stumbling down some stairs as we got to another straight stretch for a few paces and then down then next flight of stairs.

"So what's up with you and Danny?" Paul asked, after probably realizing that I wasn't going to say anything else other than 'oh'. I gave him a confused face.

"I don't know, I saw you too cuddling it up on the bus a while ago. You think de Silva might get mad." He said smirking.

"We weren't cuddling. And Jesse probably wouldn't get mad." I said looking at Paul, "Why does it matter to you anyways?"

"It doesn't. Just don't want to think that there might be trouble in paradise." He said. I glared at him and continued to walk down the stairs in silence. He suddenly grabbed my wrist and turned me to face him, at the bottom of the stairs. I looked at his tan hand, then at his face. His striking blue eyes bore onto me, his handsome face looked slightly troubled.

Then I suddenly remembered us in the grass, at the dance. Him stopping and me reaching up to kiss him, to make it continue… those memories haunted me. I shook my head, pissed I was even thinking of it, and glared at him,

"What?" I demanded. He let go of my wrist,

"Suze I - " he got cut off from Shannon coming out of the nearby elevator,

"There you are Paul!" she said grabbing his hand. I never did figure out what Paul was going to say.

We walked into a large room, chairs all set up, and Mrs. Hackteur was standing up at the front waiting for everyone to sit down. As I walked in the room, Jesse materialized beside me,

"Querida! There you are." He said smiling. I smiled back at him,

"Jesse, finally you're here." I said. We walked over towards the seats,

"Did you have a good trip here Susannah?" he asked,

"Yeah, it was pretty fun. A few of us played card games for a while." I told him, "But I wish you were there." I added and he smiled sheepishly,

"I will accompany you next time _querida_." He said. Soon everyone was sitting down and listening to Mrs. Hackteur as her voice boomed inside the large room. She was holding a folder out and reading from it.

"Our first assignment, The Grand Matre Hotel ghost. Pierre Wouldrove, the owner of this hotel had been getting many serious complaints from the guests. Apparently our little hotel ghost loves water, breaks faucets, creates floods, and is obviously a problem. But let us all go over this one more time, WE DO NOT PERMIT _ANY_ TYPE OF UNNECESSARY EXPLUSION, ONLY THE NATURAL WAY." Her voice suddenly boomed. Whoa, OKAY LOUD MUCH? She got her point across though. No exorcising any ghosts. Got to get the ghosts to move on by themselves, _sigh_, this could take a while.

Mrs. Hackteur went over a few more rules, like no boys were allowed in the girls room and vice versa after 8:00 at night, we are to have _manners_ and be polite to the hotel staff (she ACTUALLY said that) and some more rules as she checked them off on her checklist (something she was never without.)

Father Dom then stood up and gave us each a folder. The folder contained information on this hotel ghost and a list of several complaints that the guests had given. Then we all went back upstairs, it was past 8pm now, so apparently we all had to go to our individual rooms, tomorrow we were getting up extra early to meet the hotel manager or something.

Ugh, I hate anything early in the morning. We all went into the girl's room, why? I honestly have no clue; I think everyone wanted to play cards or something, already breaking one of the rules, no guy in the girl's room after 8:00 deal and stuff.

But no one seemed to care so I went along with it; I didn't want to just hang out with just Aimee and the Ice Queen, I mean Shannon, anyways. We all sat down to play cards, deciding to play 'Cheat' again. The cards were all dealt out but suddenly we heard a shout,

"RIGHT AFTER I TOLD YOU!" Mrs. Hackteur said from the open doorway (we _really_ need to close the door every so often…) we all looked up in horror at the strict women, who was now trying to take the cards out of our hands,

"PLAY DOWNSTAIRS, NOT IN THE ROOM!" she said fiercely grabbing Danny's cards.

"Hey, hey, HEY! OKAY!" Danny yelled back through his laughter as Mrs. Hackteur was whacking him with her trusty clipboard,

"Get out! Get out!" she was yelling at Danny, Nate and Paul as they left in a hurry. Mrs. Hackteur stood up, straightend and fixed her hair, and then suddenly Dan's head poked back into the room,

"Girls! Meet us in the main lounge!" he said and Mrs. Hackteur whipped around,

"DANIEL!" she yelled and chased him out. I started laughing the second she left, relieved to see Aimee laughing as well.

"Well, we might as well meet them there." I said and Aimee smiled,

"Yeah, it's something to do… I guess." She replied. But Shannon just gave an exaggerated yawn,

"Obviously _you_ ladies don't think about it but I need my beauty sleep."

"It's like 9:00…" I said sarcastically.

"So?" she scoffed, "We have to wake up early tomorrow." She said and then walked into the bathroom slamming the door.

"Oh, honestly!" I sighed in frustration; she obviously was just going to spend the next hour putting curlers in her hair or something. I walked out of the room, Aimee following me as we got into the elevator and hit the ground floor button.

Soon we made it into the 'main' lounge. It had two pool tables, several couches and tables, a bar, small casino machines and a big screen TV at the side and a large fire place at the end.

"Whoa." I managed to say. The boys were all lounging on the chairs and couches; Dan was shuffling the cards on the table in front of them. This time Jesse, Marcus and Hannah were there to play too so I sat myself next to Jesse and Dan, across from Paul and Nate. Dan dealt out all the cards out and we began…

oOo

"CHEAT!" I screamed loudly. Nate yelled 'NOOOOOOO!" as he was forced to pick up a lot of cards and Nate isn't one to yell. But we were all into it. Even Marcus, it was past midnight and he was still playing. Aimee was giggling like a school girl and Hannah was having the time of her life, or, uh death. Jesse was grinning mischievously, he had gotten away with a lot, he seemed to pick up how to play the game fast and some how manage to outsmart all of us at it.

"Hmm, four hours past our bed time, Mrs. Hackteur would blow a fuse if she found us." Paul said smirking. I thought that maybe I should mention the fact that 8:00 wasn't our bedtime, but the time that we couldn't go in the other sex's room but whatever.

"That woman is out for me." Daniel said darkly, "She never sleeps, never eats, she is always watching…" he said laughing and we all laughed with him. This card game _was_ a good idea, I'll admit. We all gotten to know each other better and we were having a lot of fun talking and laughing.

Soon Paul and Danny came back with another round of drinks for us (fake ids, yo.) and we changed to play Crazy 8's since there were a lot of us here, it would be another hectic game. We talked about a lot of things like music, shows we watched, what our schools were like, our families, favourite movies,

"Show me the money!" Hannah said screaming the line like they did in the movie, then burst out laughing, her red hair matching her face as she laughed so hard.

"I love that movie too!" Aimee said, not nearly as loud as Hannah's quote had been yelled. Nate burped loudly and Hannah giggled again, okay we were _so_ breaking the being 'quiet' and 'polite' rule.

"I like Jaws." Jesse said smiling. And Nate nodded enthusiastically. I had made Jesse watch many movies over the years to catch him up on more current times. He preferred the older ones.

"Yeah! My favourite quote from that movie was, 'Smile you son of a - '" Hannah quickly put a hand over Nate's mouth,

"We are in a hotel, hello?" she said laughing. Nate grabbed her hand and pretended to bite and she squealed, laughing. I laughed at them.

"I like the quote 'Most people learn by observation, there are the few who learn by experimentation. And then there are those who actually TOUCH the fire to see if it's **really** hot.'" Marcus said laughing really hard, his glasses slipping down his nose. We all chuckled along but Marcus was laughing like I've never seen before. Okaaay then.

"My favourite is, 'People can live one hundred years without really living a minute.'" Jesse said. I turned and looked into his eyes, it is true. People can live for so long and not really, well, live. Feel alive I mean, and I don't think it had to do with being a ghost either, I think it had to do with living every moment to the fullest alive or ghost. I smiled at him,

"That's a beautiful quote." I told him and he had a smile on his handsome face,

"'Save a horse, ride a cowboy.' Must be your favourite quote, huh Suze?" Paul said smirking. I gave him a 'ha-ha, very funny… NOT' look, Jesse just looked positively scandalized. Marcus was sort of figuring it out in his head, RIDE a COWBOY; he looked from me to Jesse, uh gross. Danny looked very annoyed at Paul, which was fine by me.

Soon the game was finished up and we decided to get back to our rooms. Once Aimee and I got back to our room we noticed Shannon was missing. Jesse appeared by the door,

"Well goodnight _querida_, and if you need anything, just call me." He said rubbing my arm in a friendly way.

"Night Jesse!" I said hugging him, noticing over his shoulder that Paul was quietly knocking on a door further down the hallway. What was he doing? Suddenly the door opened and a tan arm grabbed him by the shirt and pulled him in. OH, GROSS! So _that's _where Shannon was. Getting a room so she and Paul could be alone, uh…. ew. Jesse left and I told Aimee about what I saw in mild disgust and she decided she was going to go ask around the front desk to see if a 'Shannon Hampton' did indeed get a key for another room.

Aww, that's so Nancy Drew.

I went to take a shower. It had been a long day and a hot shower would feel great.

I had my clothes from the day, white tank top and jeans still on when suddenly the shower turned on by itself and then the hand held water nozzle. I watched in horror as it lifted up and started to spray me.

It finally concluded in my head that someone was spraying me, with cold water, and it was obviously a ghost. I moved out of the way but the water coming from the nozzle and it suddenly went on a very hard pressure, knocking me back into the walls.

Okay, ouch. The sinks (there were two underneath the huge vanity mirror) both turned on and hot water was steaming out. The bathtub turned on and water was drilling out at high pressure as well. I was soaking wet, I tried to run out of the way but only ended up slipping on the wet, marble floor and fell on my back. That hurt.

I tried to get up but the cold water was drilling me and it was hard to stand. I looked up at the now fogged up mirror from the condensation and words were appearing as if someone was writing it with a finger,

'YOU WILL GET OUT.' It said.

Hmmm, unlikely.

'YOU WILL GET OUT OR DIE.' It wrote underneath. I laughed, I actually laughed out loud even if I _was _being drilled with cold water. This was just so dumb. Suddenly the water stopped and a ghost appeared.

"WHY ARE YOU LAUGHING?" she demanded in rage. She looked about 16 years old. She had shoulder length black hair and very blue eyes. Oh, so _this_ was the hotel ghost.

"Why? This is just, well, the writing on the mirror? It's so lame." I said, standing up. She looked at me, her face fallen.

"Just show yourself next time, I'm not scared of you." I said.

"I didn't know it wouldn't scare you." She said sighing in annoyance.

"Look, I'm part of an organization called MED and -" but she cut me off,

"Yes I know, I was listening to your little meeting in the ball room today." So _that's_ what it was. Ah yes Watson, the _Ball _Room... with the wrench, it was Colonel Mustard! ... Time to concentrate, Suze.

"Then you know you don't belong here." I said, now my teeth were chattering, I was very cold.

"Say's who?" she said, then all of the taps turned back on, at a very high pressure and the cold water from the nozzle hit me in the face, I couldn't see, it was hurting me.

I screamed, holding my hands to my face, trying to protect myself. I fell back again on the slippery floor, hoping not to break some bones in the process, but this time I landed in someone's arms. All the water shut off and I heard an evil crackle as that stupid little pipsqueak dematerialized before I could punch her in the face.

"Are you okay?" Dan asked as he helped me up. "What happened here?"

"Our little ghostie." I said shaking in the cold. He put a towel around my arms and several on the floor to help absorb the water. Then he sat me on one of the beds and sat beside me,

"Are you sure you're okay?" he asked again with concern.

"Fine." I said, my teeth chattering.

"You're cold." He said and I felt like going 'duh!' but forgot as he wrapped his arm around me and pulled me close for heat. Mmmmmm, felt good.

"Thanks." I said, feeling a lot better already.

"No prob." He said smirking. He sat there for a while,

"You should have gotten help when she first came." He said pulling me away and looking me square in the eyes.

"I've done this hundreds of times." I said.

"Yes but this time you have eight other mediators and two ghosts on the team who want to be there when this stuff happens okay?" he said and all I could do was nod, staring into his eyes.

"Well, I mean I was kind of being pelted my water you know?" I said babbling on, "At a very high pressure, oh, and it was _very_ cold! I still am!" I whined in spite of myself hating whiners.

"Then we better warm you up." Danny said.

Then, he kissed me.


	5. Surfing Lessons

Thank you for the reviews everyone. They really help inspire me and give me a push to keep writing. I love hearing your thoughts on the chapters, what you like, what you dislike, etc. I'm glad I started writing again after reading a review that told me to finish my story. It's quite the task as this is a long story to finish but I'd like to try.

Enjoy.

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**Then, he kissed me.**

o0o

Chapter 5: Surfing Lessons

It took me by complete surprise when he kissed me. I think for a second that I was shocked, but let me tell you it felt _good_. Especially since I was very cold and when he started to kiss me further, it made me very warm.

He put a hand on my back; my cold, wet tank top was sticking to me. Okay if you really want to know, I kissed him back. I hadn't been kissed like this for many months and I suddenly realized how much I missed it.

I soon found myself lying back on the bed, him on top of me, but he was making sure he wasn't weighing all his weight on me. I wasn't thinking, I _couldn't_ think, who could when a very attractive guy had his tongue in your mouth?

His hands were pulling at the bottom of my tank-top. I put my hands under his shirt, whoa, he _definitely_ worked out. Then I wrapped my hands around his neck, feeling his soft, black hair. Soon his own hands had the entertaining idea of slowly pulling up my wet shirt, _very_ slowly so that his hands would warm the once cold and wet spot.

I kissed him with more passion. Why was I doing this? Because you can't stop. Because you miss being loved. My shirt was up to my ribs and he started kissing my jaw and neck. He was good, _really_ good. But then of course, I had to stop him.

"Stop." I murmured. And just like _some_ people I know, they don't stop when told to. I sat up slowly and he finally did stop and looked at me,

"What's wrong?" he asked, his breath kind of ragged. I was breathing hard as well,

"This is a little fast Dan." I said taking his hand off my upper stomach.

"I'm sorry Suze, I just… god you're so sexy." He said kissing my neck, making me melt inside. Damn that Irish charm!

Suddenly the door opened and none other then Paul Slater stood, his face one of horror.

Then again, what he was seeing was me and Danny on the bed, my wet tank top (practically see-though… I _was _wearing a bra, don't get any sick ideas!) up high, almost off, with his hands all over me and his mouth on my neck. One of my hands was going through his hair and the other was helping me sit up slightly. Paul's face was one of utter shock; he shook his head slightly as if trying to erase the image,

"Uh… I should really knock next time." He said, his face now looking half embarrassed and half disgusted. He shut the door behind him,

"Oh shit." I said and got up, much to Daniel's sadness,

"Suze, where are you going?" he asked.

"I have to go!" I said all in a rush towards the door. Dan got up,

"Okay..." He said, looking confused and I gave him a quick smile back before running out, and slamming the door. I skidded out into the hall and looked both right and left real fast. Paul was walking down the corridor to my left, towards the room that he and Shannon had entered previously this night.

"Paul, wait!" I said running to catch up. He ignored me, (man, it was _hard_ to run in wet jeans!) and his hand was on the door.

"God Paul, wait!" I hissed and grabbed his hand. He stood there looking at me and then shook his head.

"What?" I demanded.

"God Suze, you just met him." He snapped at me.

"What? Since when did _you_ get to decide my life?" I said in an appalled tone.

"So what's with that?" he asked. "You jump in bed with people you just meet now?" Paul said with cool eyes. Okay he did _not_ just say that.

"Paul!" I said shocked. He was insisting on some slutty behaviour it seemed. Or maybe I just felt that way. Because I felt a little slutty.

"What?" he asked shrugging, "It's true." Some sort of realization dawned on his face. "Oh boy is Rico going to be mad." He said smiling a little.

"Why?" I said. "I mean, I know Jesse might be a little scandalized... But, I don't think he will be mad. Maybe I shouldn't have been in such a compromising position, sure, maybe it _is_ a little too fast, yeah, but what does it have to do with him? " I said babbling. Who knows if he understood what I was trying to spit out. "I suppose it was a little fast..."

"A little fast?" he said, his face one of amusement as he pulled my tank top down. It was still ridded up and since it was wet, it had stayed there.

"Um," I said blushing horribly in embarrassment, "Wait, hold the phone. You can't seriously be telling _me_ this stuff when number one; _you_ are the one that is staying in a room with Shannon, breaking the rules. Plus number two, its called KNOCKING Paul, try it sometimes." I said trying to be cool. He merely chuckled,

"And Danny is in _your_ room after 8:00 breaking the rules as well. Plus I thought you were going to be asleep or something... I just went back to go get Shannon's clothes."

"Her _clothes_? Oh, wait you two _are_ having a slumber party together." I said tauntingly. He just smiled, ugh; he was making me so angry!

"Why does it matter to you what Danny and I were doing anyways? I mean _I _at least stopped what could have happened, something you and Shannon will disregard tonight obviously." I snapped at him.

"Shannon and I are in a relationship." Paul pointed out.

"Well…" I said trying to think of something… ANTHING!

"And as much as I won't care seeing de Silva's heart being broken…" he began with obvious pleasure thinking about it.

"What?" I asked in general confusion. Then it hit me. Paul didn't know.

"Paul…" I began,

"But it might just hurt him if he finds out that you and Danny were making out in one of the hotel rooms…"

"But-"

"I mean what is going on with that anyways?" he continued.

"PAUL!" I half yelled, and he finally listened to me,

"What?"

"We aren't going out!" I said exasperated.

"What?" he said, obviously not taking in anything I was saying.

"Jesse and I are NOT together. We haven't been for a while." I said trying to read his face. He looked stunned,

"So… what? I don't… whoa." He managed to say.

"What?" I demanded.

"Well I never would have guessed… I mean…" he said with a small smile playing on his lips that was making me veryannoyed.

"Well we decided that it was for the best." I huffed, now realizing how cold these clothes are, "And I'm going to go now so you can go back to your little love nest." I said rolling my eyes as he stood there smirking,

"Night Suze."

oOo

Paul seemed to be a lot more cheery the next day at breakfast. Even though he didn't care about me in that way anymore, some sort of heart break for me and Jesse was such a turn on for him, wasn't it?

We basically have our own MED room set up, huge with a long white table. There was also a buffet all the time changing from breakfast meals to lunch to dinner for us in the room as well. We all were sitting down eating and chatting quietly, but I couldn't help notice a few different things.

Danny certainly looked happier, he seemed to smile at me all the time making my heart do flip flops, I hadn't expected to meet anyone at all on this little excursion, but I really couldn't deny his magnetism.

Paul kept on looking cheerier, I bet he and Shannon got it on good last night. Why the fuck am I picturing this...

I had filled in Jesse about everything that had happened last night (skipping the part where Danny and I made out, I don't think he needed to know that) and Jesse was very concerned for me.

"Why did you not call for me Susannah?" he asked looking at me as if I was badly injured, which I wasn't at all.

"I wasn't really thinking Jesse; I mean… the water was blasting at me like a fire hydrant, I didn't have much time to react, sorry."

"I hope you are okay _querida_, I am glad Mr. West was there to help you." Jesse said and I clued in that he meant Daniel.

"Yeah…" I said not wanting to talk further, I was afraid he would find out about what happened _after_ 'Mr. West' rescued me. He mustn't find out! I didn't think Jesse would approve and it was for the best. Before breakfast I clued Father Dom in (who also expressed concern) and then Mrs. Hackteur (who expressed little to no concern) of what had happened with the ghost.

Things were pretty regular at our breakfast, from Hannah laughing about something Marcus said, (honestly I think only him and Hannah think that his science jokes are funny) and to Aimee sitting away, her nose in a book.

Paul showed up for breakfast but Shannon wasn't with him.

"Where's your lover?" I asked my expression bored.

"Sleeping in." he said shrugging, taking a bite of his pancakes.

"We have a meeting now! You sort of _have_ to show up!" I couldn't believe how rude she was being, "Sheesh, why is _she_ so tired?" Actually… on second thought, DON'T answer that question, Ugh… I don't want the imagery. Paul smiled one of his trademark smiles that would probably make any girl in the world swoon and fall in love, but I merely rolled my eyes and sighed.

"What about _your_ lover?" he asked.

"Huh?" I answered back quite unintelligently. Then Danny came up from behind me, his hands immediately held my waist as he slid on the bench beside me.

"Hey." He murmured sexily into my ear as he kissed my cheek. Paul's smile faded and he glared at Dan,

"So Daniel, didn't know you had a thing for lil Susie here." He said. Dan looked up with an amused expression,

"Who wouldn't?" He said charmingly. "What's it to you? Then again we all know how you like to watch us." He said, his voice even. Paul's grip on his fork tightened dangerously,

"It was an accident; I didn't think that I would walk in on _that_." He said looking disgusted.

"Whatever, you have your own fuckbuddy to worry about don't you?" Danny said looking at Paul with a sarcastic look. Fuckbuddy? As if _that's_ a word, wait… WHAT IS HE SUGGESTING ABOUT ME? Paul just rolled his eyes and shook his head as I figured out if Danny meant only Shannon... or me too?

"What?" I ended up asking, well, demanding. Paul looked up and gave Daniel a look like, 'Oh, busted!'

"I mean Shannon only, not you Suze!" Dan said quickly.

"Shannon isn't my _fuckbuddy_.' Paul said, saying it as if it was the most ridiculous thing he had ever heard.

"Right." Dan said with a smirk and Paul soon had his hands in fists.

"Guys-" I started to warn but I was cut off from Mrs. Hackteur,

"Now you all know or may not, that we were visited by the hotel ghost late last night." She said and practically everyone looked confused,

"Where did this happen and approximately what time?" Marcus asked, pushing his glasses up and typing up something on his laptop.

"In one of the bathrooms in our rooms. I don't know what time but you can ask Miss Simon if you wish." She answered.

"Why Suze?" Nate asked confused.

"Well the ghost apparently attacked her so logically she would know more about it than us." She said, one eyebrow rose skeptically. Everyone looked at me with strong interest in the story, Aimee looked hurt. Opsie, I guess I should have told my roommate…

"Uh, yeah… around after the card game." I said shrugging. After a moment of silence, soon realizing I wasn't going to recount the whole story again, Mrs. Hackteur decided to tell it. I looked away and then at the hands on my waist, for someone he just basically met, Danny was really possessive. But I didn't really mind it; I sort of missed the attention…

… …_Jesse and I were lounging on a 'love seat' on the porch watching the sun set. It was beautiful, one of the most amazing things to watch in the world. His arm was around my waist and I was leaning in on him. I felt amazing, ever since that night with Jesse on my birthday I felt like I was walking on clouds. We were closer than ever and it felt great. He kissed my cheek softly,_

"_I love you querida." He whispered. I smiled to him and we kissed slowly,_

"_I love you Jesse." I said giggling and we rubbed noses. We both had stupid smiles on our faces, we were clearly love sick. As the sun slowly set into the water I remembered that song me and Ceecee and Adam used to sing, as Jesse and I watch the sun set now I hummed the tune to myself, 'And I'll be alright.' I thought out loud, smiling… _…

I smiled and touched my fingers to my lips, thinking of the memory. Suddenly a man walked into the room. He looked very uptight, like a pole jammed up his butt or something. He had very sharp, clean cut clothes on and had a look of importance on his face.

"This is the hotel manager, Mr. Saliner." Mrs. Hackteur said introducing him as he turned to us after thanking Mrs. Hackteur. He was not smiling or giving any look of thanks to _us_,

"As you all very well know there is a… problem, in this hotel." He said it as if admitting there was a ghost was the LAST thing to admit. "We have hired… you people… to solve this problem as quick and hassle free as possible." He looked disdainfully at us. CLEARLY showing in his face that he did not put up with crap, and apparently this whole 'mediator' business was crap to him. "I hope this isn't _too_ hard to understand." He said looking at us like we were little kids.

Marcus raised his hand (what the-) and asked a very lengthy and difficult question on the history and water systems of the hotel that made Mr. Saliner very confused and bothered. Ha,** fool**. Thank you Marcus, Mr. Saliner needed a little lesson in manners.

People seemed to be getting bored and were looking around or picking at the leftovers of their food. Jesse glanced at me smiling, then at Danny's hands around my waist and the smile faded. Oh no. I didn't look at him until Mr. Saliner left and Father Dom told us all that today we all had to find some information about the residents that used to stay here hoping to find the one that was the ghost. We all nodded and then left to do our own thing. Jesse managed to catch up to me on the stairs,

"Susannah, wait!" He said pulling me around to face him. "It is unlike you to walk away from me, is something wrong?" he asked.

"No, nothing." I said quickly. Jesse had a small smile,

"Susannah you are not very good at lying. Was it Slater?" he asked, his face grim now.

"No." I said reassuring him.

"Then Daniel." Jesse said looking into my eyes.

"There is nothing wrong." I said trying to find good words, "I just… I mean…"

"_Querida_, I am not mad about you and Mr. West if that is what you are feeling." He said brushing some hair behind my ear, "It is okay. But you can talk to me if you need, about it." He said but I could tell that he really didn't want to know about anything between me and Danny, plus I didn't want to make him all jealous with the details… or you know, disgusted.

"Nothing is really going on." I said quickly, "Well I mean _something_ but not really…" I said losing my words. Jesse smiled,

"Don't worry _querida_, I trust you." He said before dematerializing. Trust me? What? Trust me to do what… or to NOT do something. Hmmm…. I sighed and walked up the stairs tiredly, suddenly feeling a hand go to my waist.

"Suze, there you are. You kind of ran out at the end of that meeting." Dan said, walking with me.

"Huh? Did I?" I asked looking at his hand around me.

"Yeah." He said, but he was smiling as he walked up the stairs to our room. We stopped at my room,

"We are all going to meet on the beach in ten minutes." Dan said. The hotel was on beachfront property, it was beautiful.

"Aren't we supposed to be getting information?" I asked smiling lightly. Danny laughed,

"Yeah, later, but it will be fun…" he said holding my hands, "Please come." He added, I couldn't resist.

"Okay." I said and he smiled, walking off to his room to get ready. I walked in my own room to find Aimee reading a book on her bed.

"Aimee, we are all going to the beach for some fun, you want to come?" I asked her. She looked at me then at her book,

"Um, I don't know…" she began.

"You can bring your book.' I said cheerfully, "Come on, the sun is out and shinning!" I sang, making her laugh at my terrible singing voice. I got my bathing suit and went to change in the bathroom.

I had a dark green bikini on with some short shorts overtop; my hair was down and straight, looking good. I put my sun glasses on my head, and my flip flops on my feet and walked out with my towel. I waited for Aimee who came out dressed in a pretty blue one piece and shorts. She got her towel, sunscreen and book and we left to the elevators. We had some small talk and she opened up a bit.

Soon we were walking out in the hot, Californian sun and made our way across the soft, white sand towards where everyone else we knew had their towels. This area on the beach wasn't too crowded and the view was amazing… I never got tired of looking at the turquoise water and bright sky.

Danny and Nate ran up from the beach, Good god, Mary and Joseph… they looked good. Danny had on boarder shorts with a red stripe going down each side and Nate had on an orange one with green designs. They looked like true surfies, their surfboards in their hands, both running with smiles on their faces towards Aimee and me.

Nate's shaggy blonde hair was wet and in his face but he whipped it back when he got to us and put his surfboard down. Danny did the same, his black hair gleaming in the sun. Okay, defined abs and muscles in my face were making it hard to concentrate. Aimee blushed and looked at her book, but I kept staring. Dan was staring right back at me,

"God Suze, you look good." he said as he was looking me up in down in my bikini.

"Shut up." I laughed and punched him playfully in the arm.

"Great waves out there." Nate said looking out towards to ocean.

"Where is everyone?" I asked looking around.

"My little bro is inside looking up stuff on the hotel guests." Nate said rolling his eyes, but smiling. Oh well, _someone_ at least was doing it.

"Jesse is helping him and so is Hannah." Dan said.

"Hannah is helping them?" I asked confused, "But I mean… I know Jesse probably wouldn't want to come but Hannah seems like she would." I said.

"Well I asked her but she seemed kind of depressed and said no." Nate said shrugging.

"She still gets sad about being a ghost." Danny replied, "I think sometimes she thinks she is still alive." I nodded sadly.

"What if everyone else doing?" I asked.

"Mrs. Hackteur is probably doing work and I suspect the same of Father Dominic." Dan answered.

"Dude, that woman needs to chill!" Nate said and we all laughed.

"I don't know where Shannon or Paul is." Dan said,

"Probably making out or something." I said sarcastically.

"Speaking of the devil…" Danny said smiling, and Paul came down the beach to us with Shannon. Shannon had on a small pink bikini, her blonde hair pulled up in a short ponytail. Okay I have to admit it; Paul was looking way good in his red boarder shorts, just like Dan and Nate, he too had a body like a friggen god. It's like they know moments like this are going to happen and they must train everyday for this exact moment.

His slightly curly hair from the breeze was shinning in the hot sun, and his cold blue eyes had a smile in them. He gave me a quick look over which caused me to blush and make Danny swing his arm around me,

"You want to go surfing babe?" he asked.

"Um, I don't know how to." I said.

"I'll teach you, com'mon it will be fun!" he quipped with his accent, leading me to the water with one hand and holding the surf board with the other. Nate asked Aimee if she wanted to learn but she answered no and he ran off into the water, happy to get a chance to surf.

Paul went to a shack and rented a surfboard, apparently Shannon wanted to tan in the sun so he went off into the water alone. The water was cold at first touch, then I got used to it, it was soothing and beautiful see-to-the-bottom water.

We all waded out a bit, Nate and Paul got on their boards and chatted along as Dan taught me what he could. I already knew the basics because Dopey and Sleepy once tried to teach me, but Dan helped me sit on the board then he sat behind me and instructed me to paddle. Soon all three of us were paddling along and getting in place for a wave.

"Okay when I say, I'm going to help you stand and balance yourself out okay? Don't worry I'll hold you." He said and I nodded, smiling, I was excited. Nate went first on a particularly large wave and rode it out well, yelling out and laughing. We clapped him on, smiling.

This was a lot of fun. Once we found a wave that looked suitable for my level, Daniel and I took off. He helped me up and I immediately lost my balance but he held on, we both ended up falling in the water sideways. Paul was laughing his head off by the time we resurfaced. Nate was chuckling a bit; okay it was a _little_ funny. Dan smiled,

"It's okay, it's hard at first." We practiced some more and we all rode the waves for a good hour. I managed to stand up and stay up for the whole wave on the last one, Dan holding me balanced.

"YES!" I yelled in triumph as he both fell into the water at the end. Nate and Paul clapped,

"I knew you could do it." Dan said smiling. I smiled back,

"One more time." I said and he nodded. Nate and Paul both took on a mean looking wave, both riding it well. Then Dan began paddling as a big wave came up,

"Dan," I said with a little fear, "This wave is too big for me..."

"Don't worry; a challenge is all it is." He said smiling and I smiled back hoping I would not make a complete fool of myself. We both got up and descended down the wave, parallel on it. The second the board went down I completely fell back, hitting Danny backwards in the process. I fell off the board into the water, Danny managed to stay on.

I was deep under the water, I looked around trying to swim up but I couldn't. I was caught in the undertow and it was scaring me to death. I was fighting so hard but I wasn't going anywhere, then I noticed it. It was no undertow. Two pairs of ghostly hands were on my ankles, pulling me down. It's like the RLS angels all over again. I could see the stupid hotel ghost grinning like an idiot,

"I told you to get out. Now you will face the consequences." She said menacingly. I did what I knew I had to do, I kicked her right in the face (which is hard to do in water, believe me) and she let go with one hand. I swam harder to the surface and kicked her hand repeatedly that was holding my other ankle. She let go but swam forward to grab on again, I gave a final hard kick and I saw blood pour out of her (most be broken) nose. She glared at me and dematerialized.

I could see the light, shinning through the water. I felt really dizzy as I suddenly slowed down… I had no energy left; I wasn't going to make it… Suddenly a dark shadow was above me, blocking out the light. I could barely see, my eyelids felt like dead weight, was it a shark? Oh god, please no. I stopped swimming, I couldn't… I needed air. I slowly floated downwards, almost coming to peace with it.

Suddenly a hand shot through the water and grabbed my open hand, pulling me up. I gasped for air and was pulled onto something hard, presumably a surfboard.

"It's going to be okay." I heard Danny say, and then I blacked out.

oOo

I awoke on the beach; I could feel the sand on my back. My eyes fluttered open, but I couldn't see anything yet. Suddenly I saw a pair of eyes above mine… they were icy, cold yet beautiful. What was Paul doing here? I tried to remember what happened, and then also suddenly, I noticed it wasn't just his eyes above me, his lips were above me as well, wait a tick - they were **on** me! WHAT THE –

"Wha?" I said groggily and tried to push him with my hand. He got off me immediately,

"Suze are you okay?" he asked looking concerned. Why was he asking me this? Why was he was just kissing me? I sat up and immediately regretted it, I felt like throwing up. Suddenly I felt someone grab my arm and waist and help me up gently.

"Suze what happened?" I heard Danny ask me, I assumed it was him helping me up.

"What?" I mumbled stumbling but he caught me, I needed to stop and catch my breath; I was seeing things a little clearer. "Why was Paul kissing me?" I asked looking over at Paul. I finally got my head a little clearer and it seemed like everyone including a few extra people on the beach were staring at me.

"When?" Dan asked quickly with a little alarm.

"I was saving you!" Paul said defending himself.

"Suze…" Dan said gently, "You didn't come up from the water and I paddled back as fast as I could. You went unconscious and then Paul gave you mouth to mouth resuscitation…" Danny said holding me a little tighter as if I was going to float away. I was still gasping on air as I was slowly remembering it now… the water, something was holding me down…

"Man, you were _way_ out of it. We thought maybe you had water in your system 'cause you swallowed too much." Nate said running his fingers through his hair.

"Paul knew what to do, he had lifeguard training. He saved you." Aimee said with her eyes full of concern. I stared at Paul in disbelief, he _saved_ me. Oh no… _life debt!_

"Oh." I managed to say. Danny brought me to my room and everyone filled in the room waiting on Mrs. Hackteur's orders. I was laid out on my bed, sheets over me to cover up my bikini; everyone was sitting down or looking at me nervously. Jesse materialized by my side,

"Nombre los Dios Susannah!" he said holding my hand, "Are you okay?" I smiled weakly up at him; I had had a brush with death…

"Uh, yeah…" I said quietly and he hugged me tight.

"Oh _querida_, why didn't you call me? I…" he said looking at me with sadness.

"Jesse I wasn't thinking, I couldn't think…" I said.

"She doesn't always need _you_, de Silva. And can you even swim? " Paul said in an annoyed tone. Jesse turned around and glared at him,

"And_ you_ get to decide this now?" he asked in a humoured tone.

"Well since I did save her life. Mouth to mouth resuscitation, it saves people." Paul said smiling. Jesse stared at him in shock whilst everyone was looking from him and Paul trying to figure out why they were so mad at each other over this.

But… it wasn't over this, no; it was over something long ago. Even though Paul had moved on from me (same with Jesse) they both still had years of hate for each other under their skin, they both had the same common jealousy over me even when I wasn't _with_ them. Mrs. Hackteur came walking in with a look on her face that sent chills in the air.

"I thought I told ALL of you that we were spending the day looking up on the previous hotel guests!" she said sharply. Half the people in the room looked around shamefully.

"The only people actually doing what I told them to do were Marcus, Jesse, and Hannah." She continued on, "And that's not saying much since two of them are **dead**." She said harshly, "Nothing wrong with that by the way." She said looking over to Jesse and Hannah making sure they knew she wasn't trying to offend them.

"We made it clear that you had to listen to the instructions given to you." Father Dom said, "You shall only get three warnings, this is a job and should be taken seriously."

"I would have you all thrown out!" Mrs. Hackteur plowed on, Aimee looked sick to her stomach, "But Father Dominic has convinced me to give you all three warnings, and this is one of them." She said. "Sit up Daniel!" She added whacking him with her clipboard as he straightened up from his slouching position. He stifled back a laugh and so did many of the people in the room.

"It was the ghost." I said suddenly remembering. Everyone stared at me,

"It was the hotel ghost holding me down in the water." I said, taking the covers off and showing my ankles which had red marks on them where the ghost held me down. Aimee gasped and so did Shannon who immediately grabbed onto Paul tightly,

"What the fuck!" she said shock. Mrs. Hackteur's eyes widened,

"Well Suze, I hope you are okay." She said without emotion, "So this also makes it quite clear that this ghost is violent and needs to be stopped. So you **must **do your work, I shall see you all at dinner tonight." She said waltzing out of the room at a quick pace.

"I do hope you are alright, Susannah." Father Dom said looking at my ankles with troubled eyes, "But Mrs. Hackteur is correct, the faster we know information about the ghost the faster we can get her to move on." He said before gently smiling, patting my hand then walking out.

"Let's go Paul!" Shannon whined and Paul gave Jesse one last glare before leaving the room with Shannon. Aimee still seemed terrified about the warning… to be honest I really didn't care about that now,

I just couldn't get one thought out of my head…

Hannah was quietly trying to ask Nate what had happened but she was pretty loud so he ended up dragging her and Marcus out of the room to clue them in. Aimee left red in the face with her book after noticing that it was only me, Danny and Jesse left. There was a long silence,

"Well _querida_, if you need me… just call." Jesse said looking from Danny to me, I could tell he didn't want to leave me but he was also not sure if I wanted to be alone with Danny or not. "I shall see you soon then?" he said as I looked up into his dark eyes,

"Yes." I said smiling and hugging him before he walked out of the room. Danny came and sat on the bed by my side,

"Oh god Suze I was so scared. When I got you on my board and you blacked out, I was so scared for you... I didn't know what to do, I feel so stupid." He said truthfully. I smiled at him, he was so cute.

"Thanks for being there for me. You did what you could." I said. He smiled back and kissed me slowly on the lips. But for once, when a hot guy kissed me, my thoughts didn't just melt away… no the same one thought remained…

Paul had saved my life.


	6. Drinking Away Sorrows

Chapter 6: Drinking it Up

o0o

A couple days had past since the run-in with the hotel ghost, we found out (okay, okay, Marcus found out) that the ghost's name was '_Ella_' a previous hotel guest. It didn't say much about her, only that she had stayed here seven years ago apparently in one of the most expensive suites with her parents. We assumed she was an only child because there was no record of any other children staying in the same suite. There was no other information, not much about her death except that she had drowned. Fitting.

We had yet _another_ meeting and decided that we needed to talk to this ghost, but IN PAIRS. Apparently after the ghost attacked me at the beach the other day, Mrs. Hackteur and Father Dom decided it was too dangerous not to have two people together to help each other if she went insane on people again (okay, so its only happened to _me_…)

We all spent the whole afternoon wandering around the massive hotel finding NOTHING; I repeat four hours of nothing. Danny and I were partnered up, (Mrs. Hackteur picked, I mean, I probably would have gone with Jesse if I could.) Not that I minded being with Danny though, we _did_ enjoy ourselves…

"Danny…" I panted after a heavy make-out session. He had me against the wall inside a library (yes you heard me right, a _library_, what doesn't this hotel have?)

No one was inside except one women working there, we made sure we were plain out of sight of her. She was old; she would _probably_ have a heart attack if she saw us making out. Danny smirked and kissed me more, causing my insides to burn with passion.

I couldn't help myself; he was against me so I pushed my hands up his t-shirt. Something I _never_ got tired of was feeling those abs and muscles. I could feel him smile against my lips, as I took my hands out and hung them around his neck. I loved moments like these, now with Dan, his arm wrapped around me…

"Ahem."

Daaaaamit! We stopped immediately, Dan's hands still on my small waist. Paul was standing there with his trademark smirk on his face,

"Wow, truly working hard." He said chuckling to himself. AN EVIL CHUCKLE! No, wait, just a chuckle. Danny looked pissed,

"Is there a reason for you being here Slater?" he asked, hostility creeping into his voice.

"Doing work actually, Dan-iel." Paul said, stretching out Danny's name.

"Where's your partner then?" Dan asked looking skeptic. Paul looked to his left, then noticing that there was no one there he rolled his eyes and pulled someone by the arm to stand next to him, Aimee stood there blushing furiously. I pushed Dan away a bit, I felt bad for Aimee, she obviously felt uncomfortable for breaking up me and Dan.

"Common Sarah, let's go." Paul said looking at us with disgust.

"My name is Aimee." She said looking sad. I held back a laugh; I mean it _was_ a little funny. They both left and I laughed out loud,

"Honestly I think Paul comes in at the worst times!" I said laughing.

"I know…" Dan said darkly. I stopped laughing,

"What's wrong?" I asked.

"It's like Paul is purposely doing that though…" He said a little angry.

"Danny I doubt that, I mean… why would he bother?" I asked looking into his hazel eyes.

"Maybe he likes you." He said looking at the spot where Aimee and Paul left. I laughed,

"No, no he doesn't. We are _way_ over that. We didn't really leave each other on a high note. Plus he has Shannon." I added smiling to him and he smiled back to me, reassured, and kissed me again.

o0o

"How was your afternoon Susannah?" Jesse asked later on, when we were sitting in the main lounge room where we all most often liked to hang with each other to play cards or whatever.

"Good." I answered truthfully. He smiled,

"Good to know _querida_." He said sitting with me on a couch. Paul and Shannon were sitting together on the bar stools sipping on drinks. Aimee was upstairs reading from what I last saw; Marcus, Nate and Hannah were all watching football on the TV in the lounge. I had no clue where Mrs. Hackteur and Father Dom were, gasp – Scandal! They were missing… together! Okay, don't mind me, like _that_ would ever happen.

"Was it a very productive afternoon?" he asked.

"Uh, no... not very productive." I said blushing, thinking of Danny and I. We were a bit productive, maybe not in the search of the ghost…

"Neither were Shannon and I." he said, his handsome face looking at me curiously noticing my blush.

"So," I said trying to keep his gaze from my face, "Uh, how _was_ working with Shannon?"

"No bueno, I have never seen someone talk about their selves more then her." He said laughing causing me to laugh as well,

"She is a little prissy ain't she?" I said looking over at her and Paul as she flipped her beautiful blonde hair and laughed, touching his arm." I don't even spend as much time on my hair and that's saying something." I said looking back to Jesse with a smile.

"Yes _querida_, you are definitely not like her." He said. "Gracias Dios" he added.

"I love it when you speak Spanish." I said smiling,

"Maybe I should speak it all the time then.' He said.

"No, it's already hard enough to understand your 1850's lingo." I said teasingly. He smiled and took my hand in his and we wrestled a bit, laughing, me trying to get my hand away. We stopped after a while and sighed, settling down a bit.

"It's so weird Jesse…" I said looking up at the high, grand ceiling. "You would have never imagined us here two years ago." I said, now looking into his dark eyes.

"Sí _querida_, I would not have guessed such things. But, I am enjoying it." He said tickling me slightly making me laugh. He stopped and I sighed in relief,

"So am I."

"Wow that must look weird to onlookers Suze, since no one can see Jesse it looks like your laughing with yourself." Paul said. I looked up to him, my cheeks burning in embarrassment.

"Whatever." I mumbled and squeezed Jesse's hand as if to tell him to let this one slide. Shannon grabbed onto Paul's hand and led him away from us with a laugh.

"Do not worry about Slater." Jesse said, "He is just mad because he never has fun with Shannon." I smiled back at Jesse but I didn't _quite_ agree with him, I mean Shannon and him have a room… yeah… no explanation needed.

As we were walking up the stairs hand in hand, Daniel came bounding down them and I quickly dropped Jesse's hand guilty. I don't even know why I felt guilty, Jesse and I were friends.

"Hey guys listen; we are going to have a party!" Dan said excitedly.

"What? How?" I asked in interest. Hey, I haven't been to a party since the end of the school year, months ago, so sue me.

"Well, me and Nate got ourselves a kegger and we stashed it in the MED room, (he was referring to the room where we ate our meals and had our meetings, a room that we were renting for as long as it took us to get rid of Ella) and we also have some 6-packs and stuff." He said smiling. "A little of that, a little music and dancing and we got ourselves and party!" he said now positively beaming. This reminded me of the good old days. Purely mischief.

"Sounds fun." I said, I really wasn't sure but I was bored of just wandering around (FOR FOUR HOURS) and come up with NOTHING, plus whenever we all hung out together it was always really fun.

"Fun?" Jesse said skeptical, "We are supposed to be responsible, Mrs. Hackteur and Father Dom-" but he was cut off,

"Father Dom is asleep at 9:30, which," Danny said looking at his expensive watch, "is the current time. Mrs. Hackteur won't leave her room anyways. It's going to be fun, I mean I know _you_ can't drink but you can still dance right?" he said,

"_Yes_." Jesse said looking annoyed, "But this is irresponsible to have alcohol in the hotel of all places…" he said sighing, "I do not think it is very wise to be getting intoxicated on our first couple weeks here." Danny frowned,

"We don't plan on getting drunk, just having fun." Right… Jesse sighed,

"Well if you want to have the party then fine Mr. West, I will not stop you and I will not tell Mrs. Hackteur or Father Dominic." He said and Dan looked relieved, "But I will not be joining you." I looked at Jesse with shock,

"But Jesse!" I said, "I want you to come, it will be fun. Just a night to relax a bit…" But Jesse shook his head,

"I am sorry Susannah…" he said looking at me, "But I do not think this is right, you are going though?" he asked and Danny grabbed my hand,

"Of course she is! Everyone is going!" he said, "Well not you, but it would be really cool if you did Jesse." But Jesse shook his head again,

"I am sorry Daniel, maybe another time." And Dan nodded. Jesse gave me one last look of disappointment before dematerializing.

"He has his old habits and ways…" I said looking at the spot where he vanished.

"That's okay Suze, it will still be fun." Dan said smiling to me and I smiled back.

oOo

He was right, it was fun. The music was good (no one could hear it outside the room thank goodness) and playing popular songs. Everyone was having a few drinks or two, or five... We ordered pizza and everyone was dancing and laughing with each other.

I was sitting beside Danny on a bench (all the benches and tables were moved to the walls so we had dance room) sipping on my drink. I had decided only to have a little bit of alcohol tonight, I definitely didn't want to get drunk and be such a disappointment to Jesse. I valued his opinion.

Paul and Shannon were on the dance floor, dancing to a fast playing song. Shannon was wearing a small, dark green skirt and a off the shoulder black top. Paul and her were dancing in perfect rhythm of each other, he was looking really handsome tonight in a black t-shirt (I swear when these guys wear anything you can just SEE the muscles hidden beneath) and dark jeans.

Nate and Hannah were dancing as well; Hannah was grinding up against him giddily. No, no… she wasn't under any influence of booze, she always was like that. Nate on the other hand looked like has was having the time of his life, Hannah in front of him, one hand on her and one on a red cup of beer.

Marcus did not come to the party (no duh) but Aimee _did_ come. I know, shock and dismay! But this was after me asking her over and over, and Shannon slipping out a comment of, 'whatever she never does anything with us anyways' whilst straightening her hair, Aimee decided to come. Mind you she was reading her book on the bench, but to each her own.

There was also several other people, Nate and Danny had plenty of friends around California, and Newport was no exception. Plus their friends invited _their_ friends and well, you know how it can get. Crazy. But everyone was being pretty respectful, they were not getting way overly drunk, they weren't being too rowdy (we didn't need to be careful about being quiet; I _swear_ they set up MED in a sound proof room… I mean we _were_ always talking about ghosts I bet Mr. Saliner didn't want his precious guests overhearing.)

Plus no one was leaving the room, it _was_ really big and we did close the doors, there was a bathroom located through a door right off of the room anyways.

But this whole thing _**was **_really risky. I mean, Nate and Danny had to get all of the beer out without being caught, and we all helped sneaking the new guests in who weren't actually staying at the hotel. Nate finally got Marcus to agree to keep watch over the halls by leaving his door open and alert us if he could if he saw Mrs. Hackteur walking around. But all and all I was having fun and so was everyone else, I still wish Jesse could have come though.

"Want to dance Suze?" Danny asked. I could smell the alcohol off his breath.

"Uh, sure." I agreed and he led me to the dance floor. A song came on that was practically MADE for grinding. I didn't know if I was a good dancer and Paul with Shannon were not too far off making me a little intimidated. Danny and I faced each other and danced for a little bit,

"You need to relax Suze." Danny said smiling, pulling me closer. I danced practically into him, slowly melting as I looked into his beautiful hazel eyes. His dark hair and smile was making my heart pound like crazy. He was wearing black jeans and a good fitting maroon t-shirt. I was wearing a black skirt and a red, silk top that hung low at the neck and looked like it was done up with stings in the back, which made me feel even more crazy when Dan placed his hand on my practically bare back and leaned me into him. My hair was shiny and down, my green eyes sparkling as he kissed my neck. I was getting into the song way more and I turned around, my butt facing him, moving with the music.

My hand went to his side and one went around his neck as he placed his firmly on my hips. We moved perfectly to the music, our dancing was heated and passionate. Dan continued to kiss my neck making it burn. I looked over and found some people watching us; the guys stared at Danny in envy. Because of me. Now _that_ felt good, they had _finally_ stopped watching Shannon move her tiny butt around. I looked over to Shannon, she was helping herself with a cup to the kegger, and Paul already had one in his hand. He was watching us with an expression I couldn't read. Soon the song ended and Danny was smiling,

"That was awesome Suze." He said and I felt good. He got me a cup of beer and helped himself to one. I noticed some people were getting pretty wasted. I didn't really want it and looked around uneasily. I noticed Hannah sitting by herself watching Nate dance with someone else. She looked pretty troubled so I walked over to her and sat down,

"What's wrong?" I asked and she looked at me with sadness in her eyes,

"Nate's dancing with another girl…" she said sighing, I had never seen her _not_ happy.

"What, do you like him?" I asked bluntly.

"No… I don't know." she said looking at me and smiling slightly, "I guess I just wish that people could see me, and know I _was_ dancing with him."

"I knew you were, I saw you." I said and she smiled back at me.

"I saw you and Dan, whoa boy!" she said laughing.

"What?" I asked, smiling in spite of myself.

"You guys looked hot." She said laughing. I laughed too but stopped as I suddenly saw Paul and Shannon making out heavily on a seat against the wall. Hannah followed my gaze,

"Sheesh, get a room." She said jokingly.

"They got one actually." I said laughing and she laughed as well.

"That Paul _is_ pretty hot." She said and I made a disgusted face,

"Please _don't_ tell me you like him too! I think every girl is in love with him." I said making a face.

"No!" Hannah said giggly, "He has a girlfriend, plus he isn't my type at all. But he _is_ nice to look at." She added.

"Yeah, yeah." I said, downing my entire drink, thinking back…

… … "_Paul…" I said walking up to him. He wouldn't even look at me. We were standing inside the busy hallway of lockers at the school. "Please, talk to me." I said touching his arm lightly. He turned around and glared at me causing me to back up a bit._

"_Suze, please _**_don't_**_ talk to me." He hissed. I looked down at the ground sadly._

"_I really hoped we would all just put this behind us. I mean I know it was horrible, that night... the dance… I wish it never happened like that." I said looking up into his piercing blue eyes._

"_Your choice." He said darkly. A silence came between us, then the bell shattered it. _

"_I got to get to class…" I mumbled and walked away. _

_It was halfway through the class until I noticed that Paul wasn't in it. It was history, we had history together. Where was he? I asked to go to the bathroom and walked out into the silenced halls. Why was he not in class?_

_I suddenly had a very bad feeling in my stomach, which grew much worse as I saw him step out of Father Dom's office shaking the priest's hand, his backpack on his shoulder. I quickly followed him into the empty courtyard before I had caught up._

"_Paul, what are you doing?" I asked and he turned around and looked at me with surprise. _

"_What are _**_you_**_ doing?" he asked, "You should be in class."_

"_I would think the same about you." I said._

"_No…" he said quietly. "I am leaving." And with that he turned around and walked away. I stood there in shock for a few moments before racing across the stone ground and past the courtyard trees before catching up to him as he past another hall of lockers. _

"_Paul, WAIT!" I yelled and he turned around fast, making me skid to a halt right in front of him._

"_What for?" he asked viciously. "I'm tired of waiting for you." He said glaring. I felt my heart drop and my breath quicken,_

"_This is irrational! Please think about this! You can't just _**_leave_**_! I mean, because of me?" I asked, "I mean you could have anyone! You could have Kelly!" I said in desperation. Paul snorted in amusement, _

"_Kelly? Right Suze." He said rolling his eyes at the thought of her, "But you don't get it do you?" he said his tone now getting rough, "I didn't want just anyone, I wanted you." But he cut me off before I could say anything, "But you choose… him." He said his fist clenched at the thought of Jesse. _

"_So you're leaving because I love Jesse?" I asked. Big mistake. He pushed me against the nearby lockers behind me. Hard. _

"_Why do you love him?" he demanded, "WHY?"_

"_I… I don't know." I barley whispered, on the verge of tears. His grip on my wrists tightened. _

"_That's why I'm leaving Suze." He said looking me in the eyes, "Because of you." He said letting me go and turned to walk away._

"_No!" I said pulling on his shirt, the tears now spilling down my face. "Don't go, I didn't mean to hurt you!" I said crying. I had never felt like this before, I had never been so _**_weak_**_. It was worst then fighting some crazed ghost, it was my heart _**_breaking._**_ He put me against the lockers again,_

"_You should have thought of that before choosing him over me." He said growling, "There is nothing you can do… unless you choose me." He said a little hope in his eyes. I looked back at him, and said nothing, a silence between us for the longest time. He kissed me one last time on the lips before letting me go._

_He shook his head sadly looking truly tormented before walking away, leaving me as I slid down the lockers to the ground, tears streaming down my face… _…

I drained another beer in one large gulp. Whoa… tequila much? Whatever, I guess some losers were spiking it with other stuff. Who the fuck would spike beer with tequila! Ugh.

I glared at Paul, he had made me feel so horrible, and he _still_ haunted me. I was over it. I stood up and got another drink and drained it down then made my way over to Danny who was just draining down another drink as well. I felt slightly sick from drinking so much in such a short span. Please don't throw up on him.

"Hey babe." He said wrapping his arms around me, moving away from one of his friends he was just talking to. I kissed Dan on the lips which he happily responded to. We kissed for a while then I stopped to get some air. Danny hungrily kissed my jaw and neck causing shivers to go up my spine. I smiled and kissed him lightly on the lips,

"I'll be right back, I just need to pee." I said tipsily. All this drinking made me had to go badly. After I did my business I came back and looked around the room for Danny. My head was swimming a bit but I ignored it. Suddenly Paul Slater's face blocked my view.

"What?" I demanded.

"Getting really comfortable with Danny?" he asked, I could smell the now familiar smell of alcohol on his breath and he was slurring ever so slightly.

"Whatever." I said brushing past him but he grabbed my arm and pulled me back.

"Since you _are_ Danny's little 'fuckbuddy' and all." He said, his face one of amusement. I rolled my eyes and tired to move away but he brought me in close to him,

"Because that's what you are to him Suze, a slut. Go fuck him."

I glared at him and was filled with an anger that made me want to punch him hard. But I held it back and instead walked over to Danny, grabbing his arm and pulling him up from where he was sitting. Danny was getting really drunk so I took the cup out of his hand and kissed him hard with my anger and whispered into his ear knowing Paul was watching,

"Let's go…" I whispered. Danny smiled and we both walked, Danny's arm around me towards the door.

o0o

Danny was blindly trying to press the numbers on the elevator, but I ended up having to do it for him. We kissed and laughed as the elevator rose up towards our floor. Since the neckline was really low he had a lot of room to kiss my neck making me feel like my whole body was on fire. I put my head back and let out a giggle as he continued to kiss my neck. Everything was slightly blurry though, I guess the alcohol was taking its toll.

With a 'ding' the doors opened and we both stumbled out laughing very loud. I was leaning on Danny for support, I felt like I couldn't walk. He held me up and we both stumbled towards his room door. He couldn't seem to get his key in the door and he was laughing trying to get it in the key hole but he kept missing. I was hungrily kissing _his_ neck then watched him try and I laughed hard. Dan pressed a hand against my mouth,

"Shhh, Suze. Sly, be sly." He said grinning mischievously.

"Sly…" I said giggling. What was wrong with me? I wasn't thinking like this I mean I could **think** straight but I kept saying everything that popped in my head and my actions were like I was crazy. '_You're drunk you idiot._' I thought. '_Drinking away your sorrows on Paul._'

"Slater…" I growled. Dan finally got the key in and looked at me,

"Forget about that fucker." He said. He pushed hard against the door and it flew open and we both fell in laughing madly. He quickly closed and locked it. The 'clink' of the lock awoke my senses.

Oh. Danny smiled and walked towards me slightly stumbling then catching him self. He was obviously drunk, and suddenly my mind could think, suddenly I realized that I didn't trust myself with him; maybe my anger with Paul _shouldn't_ be used by getting with Danny.

"Danny-" I started to say but he grabbed me by my arms and pulled me into a powerful kiss that melted away everything that I was once thinking, all the thoughts of, 'this is too fast' or 'this doesn't feel right' were whipped away and all I could feel or think of was Danny. He was so hot… my head was swimming and I gave in, kissing him back. We both couldn't stand up anymore and we ended up falling backwards on top of a bed.

We kissed for a long time; finally I moved my head out of the way getting some much needed air. He kissed my jaw and neck; his hands crept up my stomach, under my top. I suddenly _wanted_ my top off, so I took it off myself. He smiled and kissed down my neck to my chest. My hands roamed his own chest delightfully before he helped me get his shirt off.

He had some tattoos on his chest all the way to half his arm. Mixed with the accent, I was pudding.

He leaned some of his weight off of me, I suddenly realized that I could barley breathe before from the excitement and everything. My hands tugged playfully on his pants and his own hand was slowly going up my thigh, lifting my skirt, causing me to moan.

"Oh god…" I said and he kissed my neck more, he was smiling, enjoying himself immensely. He then slowly pushed his hands up my stomach to my breasts. God he was good, _so_ good.

"Danny-" I breathed with a sharp intake of breath. I pulled on his belt and undid it causing _him_ to moan. I had never felt such a passion towards me or in me… or, have I?

Images of the night with Jesse came flooding in my head,

"_Oh God…" I moaned as Jesse continued to kiss my neck…_

Danny's hands went to my skirt again…

_Jesse's hands went to the rim on my pants, he tugged on them teasingly just take 'em off will ya?_

Both our breaths were coming out ragged…

_My head was starting to perspire; I was feeling all hot and sweaty. _

We started taking off whatever we could…

_I looked up into Jesse's eyes, his full of love and passion…_

I looked up into Danny's eyes, his full of lust and wanting…

Why was I thinking about him? Why was I thinking about Jesse right now, our time, when I was with Danny? I tired to get the images of Jesse out of my head. We flipped so I was on top of Danny right now; straddling his hips (I still had my undergarments on, people!) Dan grinned lustfully up at me and I leaned down and kissed him again. Suddenly I saw him as Jesse, as if I was kissing Jesse. Was it the alcohol?

But the image was gone and Danny was now the one holding my hips as he toyed with the rim of my lacy underwear. We turned over again, and through mid flip my imagery flashed from Danny to Jesse, on top of me.

"What the-" I murmured but it was Danny's lips I found kissing me. He pushed me harder into the mattress, kissing me with more passion than before. He let out a small moan,

"God, Suze…"  
_"Dios, Querida…"_

I stopped kissing Danny, what was happening to me? Did I feel bad about doing this with Danny when the last person I did it with was Jesse? Danny looked me in the eyes for a few seconds, both of us hot and sweaty but wanting more. And we continued, even if my mind, the only thing I_ could_ do right now was _think_ (if that), was telling me to 'stop'. Hey, maybe one day my body will listen… not. And just like the night before, many months ago when it was me and Jesse…we lost control, we did not stop.

o0o

My eyes fluttered open, a soft light was streaming into the room through the balcony doors, and the drapes were moved so I had a lovely view of the ocean. I smiled to myself and yawned, stretching out as I did so.

"What?" I asked to myself as I noticed a hand, leisurely draped across the covers over my body. I could see Danny, asleep beside me. I looked down at myself under the covers… uh-oh. I wasn't exactly wearing anything. Oh no… I tried to remember last night, man my head hurt right now…

Ugh… Hangover.

Danny awoke beside me and had a smug smile on his lips. He gently kissed me on the cheek,

"Morning Suze…" he said warmly and wrapped his arms around me. I couldn't answer him let alone think straight… I was in a bed with Danny… NAKED! Oh no… oh no. I sighed lightly, did I regret this? My stomach turned uneasily… but why? Because of Jesse? No… I remember stopping last night and then thinking about it, I continued. No, it was Paul. He called me a slut, and then I went off and slept with Danny… great work Suze.

I looked at Danny, he looked really happy holding me close to him. I wasn't going to ruin this, believe me when I say it was _amazing_ last night and I wasn't going to ruin it because of Paul. He might have saved my life but he was **not** going to control it.

Danny and I slept in a little later until finally I got up and picked up my clothes that were scattered on the floor and rushed into the bathroom to change. By the time I came out Danny was already changed and had a lazy grin on his face.

"Suze… that was…" he said bringing me in close to him, "amazing." He ended with a kiss. He needed to shave; it looked hot but hurt my face to kiss.

"I need a good breakfast, _man_ my head hurts." He said and I nodded in agreement. I went back to my room to quickly change into some fresh clothes, I asked him to wait a minute outside the room. I carefully snuck in, hoping Aimee was asleep…

"So _there_ you are." I heard her voice say. She was sitting in a chair by the window looking at me with a worried face. "I didn't know where you went last night." She said.

"I'm sorry Aimee I just, uh, fell asleep somewhere, uh, else." I said, but with a swift glance in the mirror I almost laughed out loud. My hair was a mess, from sleeping on it and well… yeah. My makeup was smudged and I looked really tired, my outfit was from yesterday and my eyes were pretty red looking.

"Somewhere else meaning Danny's room?" she asked smiling. I smiled back,

"Is it _that_ obvious?" I asked laughing, picking out some clothes for the day.

"Kind of. Well I _knew_ Shannon was off with Paul for the night since they have their own room and when I saw you and Danny leave the party last night I assumed the same." She said.

"Sorry." I told her smiling weakly, "I should have told you that I wasn't going to be coming back to the room."

"It's okay, you were… busy." She said laughing. I laughed with her then went in the bathroom and quickly changed. I got in some comfy jeans and a t-shirt, I removed my smudged make-up and did a quick fix up then I put my hair up in a pony tail, some layers falling out at the front. It looked pretty good compared to what my insides felt like.

Aimee and I left for breakfast, Danny was waiting outside the door looking like he fell asleep. We all got down to breakfast and sat with the rest of our group. Not many… Marcus was already eating some cereal and typing on the laptop, Jesse and Hannah were talking and that was it. I slid down on the bench next to Jesse,

"Hey." I managed to say, **oh**, he _mustn't_ find out about me and Dan.

"Good morning _querida_, sleep well?" he asked giving me a warm smile. I almost chocked on my own breath.

"W-what?" I asked.

"Uh, did you sleep well? I heard the party went well…" he said looking at me suspiciously.

"Fine, fine." I mumbled.

"The party was great." Hannah said giggling and I smiled at her,

"Yeah we had a lot of fun dancing."

"Good to hear, Susannah." Jesse said with a smile.

"Where's Nate?" I asked Marcus. He looked up to me and pushed his glasses up his nose a little,

"Still sleeping, I _couldn't_ get him up. Believe me I tried." I laughed and Marcus smiled back. Then a cold fear hit me,

"Where were you and Nate… uh, sleeping…?" I whispered quietly as Jesse was talking to Hannah.

"Danny got us another room just for that night in case people needed to stay over. And then our room was locked and we didn't have a key so we slept there." Marcus said looking at me and Danny suspiciously.

"Oh." I said blushing. Paul and Shannon came in the room finally and Nate was slowly walking behind them. Shannon had a skirt and tank top on, both pink. She had a white hoodie overtop the tank top and her hair was also in a ponytail. She looked cherry, her arm linked with Paul's, he looked very tired, also like Danny he needed to shave. They sat down and Nate followed suit, his hair was ragged and his eyes were bloodshot.

"_Someone _had too much to drink." I said teasingly and rolled my eyes. Nate smiled sheepishly and sat down, his head in his hands. Jesse shot me a look, not a good one mind you.

"Good cleaning up job guys." Hannah said as we all chatted about the previous night quietly.

"We didn't really, actually." Paul said, "The guests that came did, some of them anyways, that is how they repaid us for the party." He said.

"Wonderful idea, Paul." Shannon said kissing him on the cheek. I doubt it was _his_ idea.

"Good work to Marcus for looking out for the old lady for us." Dan said smiling, taking my hand in his.

"Whatever, I was mostly just on my laptop anyways…" Marcus said half smiling. "By the way, here is the key back Dan." He added and gave back Danny the key to the spare room he rented for that night (the one Nate and Marcus ended up sleeping in because Danny and I were… occupying their original one.)

"Why is there an extra key?" Paul asked but no one got a chance to answer because Mrs. Hackteur came rustling in,

"Father Dominic will _not_ be joining us for the moment. He is just getting us a few extra days in this hotel with our rooms; the place is pretty booked up so we can only afford to lose a day or two. We _need_ to speak with this ghost!" she said in a sharp tone. She blabbed on about being professionals and getting the job done quickly. I was just thinking over and over about the previous night.

"Alright… hmm, Daniel and Aimee?" she said and I suddenly snapped into attention feeling Danny let go of my hand. Danny gave me a '_oh great_' sarcastic look before giving me a quick peck on the cheek and walking off with his assigned partner, apparently it was back to work. "Let's see… Nate and… NATE!" she barked and smacked him with her clipboard. Nate had fallen asleep,

"Whoa… what?" he asked groggily. Too much fun for you buddy.

"Wake up Nate. You and Jesse will be searching outside the hotel." She said. Nate for once did not look happy about the mention of being outside; he knew how bad the intense light was going to feel on his eyes. Jesse gave my hand a quick squeeze,

"Talk to you later _querida_." He said before leaving with Nate.

"Alright... Hannah, Shannon and Marcus you three will take the main lobby and lounge." She said as they nodded. Oh MAN, that means I get the library left, I was _just_ there yesterday. Grumble, grumble. Wait, uh, **bigger** problem… the only person left was-

"Paul and Suze, you two take the library. Good luck." She said and was frowning, ticking off things off her clipboard. I let out a groan and walked out.

"Nice to see you too." Paul said smirking.

"I was _just_ in the library yesterday!" I complained.

"Not exactly working mind you, Suze." He said looking smug as I cast him a dirty glare. We walked inside the library, it was huge.

"It would probably be best if we split up." I said,

"No, we have to stick together. On orders." Paul added and I sighed deeply. THIS was going to be a long day.

oOo

Paul and I had been walking around aimlessly for half an hour.

"This is boring." I said casually opening a book then closing it, putting it back on the shelf.

"I know." He said. I looked over at him, I was still sort of mad at him, I mean hello? He called me a slut! My anger slowly rose as I thought about it. I didn't care if he was drunk then or not!

"You want to go down this way?" he asked then stopped looking at me curiously, "What's with the glare Simon?"

"You would know." I snapped. He looked at me, his eyebrows up,

"Lil' Susie has a hangover?" he said in a mocking tone.

"No," I growled, "Idiots like _you_ just piss me off!" I said, pushing past him.

"Oh, come on Suze, what did I do? I haven't seen you all morning." He said defensively. I looked into his light blue eyes,

"It was last night!" I said, and then shut my mouth. If he didn't know then too bad for him. He looked confused,

"I wasn't with you all night, I mean it wasn't me. Probably Danny, you were with _him_." He said suggestively. After everything that happened, especially last night, my emotions were very messed up; I suddenly couldn't think… he knows?

"You know?" I asked exasperated. Who told him? "Danny told you?" I asked in shock, Danny was the only person who could have known.

"Told me what?" Paul asked, curious now. Uh-oh.

"Never mind then." I said blushing. He stopped walking and I ended up stopping and turning to him.

"What Suze? Do I know what?" he asked.

"Nothing!" I hissed at him.

"Obviously not!" he said, now getting angry, "What is going on?" he demanded, grabbing my arm and forcing me to look into his cold eyes.

"N-nothing." I said. "It's none of your business; it's between Dan and me!" He let go of my arm, I should NOT have said that.

"Whoa…" he said running his hands through his hair. "You… and Dan? You two…" he drifted off looking into the distance. Oh great… he knew.

"We were drunk!" I said, for some reason I felt like I had to explain myself to him. "Look its no big deal… CAN YOU PLEASE STOP LOOKING AT ME LIKE THAT?" I yelled at him forgetting we were in a library.

"I just… I didn't think you were like that." He said simply, making me mad,

"Like what?" I demanded, hands on my hips.

"I don't know… I mean… Dan, your first? I thought you could do better then that." He said smiling slightly and shaking his head.

"He wasn't." I said slowly. Oh man, this conversation sucked.

"Huh?" he asked unintelligently.

"He wasn't my first Paul!" I said rolling my eyes. Paul looked amused,

"Well Suze, you didn't do it with _me_ back in the day, god knows I tried, and didn't you and Jesse break up months ago? I don't think there was anyone in-between Danny and Jesse-" he said then slowly his smile faded. "No…" he said. "You _got_ to be kidding me. The cowboy?" he said laughing. I glared at him and smacked his arm,

"Shut up! Jesse isn't a cowboy." I said lamely as he laughed. God, this was embarrassing.

"I didn't think you could with a ghost!" He said making a face, "But please don't give me the details." He added with a laugh.

"Oh shut up!" I said and we walked on. "Honestly Paul you are no better. You and Shannon that is." I said.

"At least she is alive." Paul said laughing at me.

"Whatever." I mumbled. We walked in silence.

"I still can't believe it Suze." He said now looking at me with a face I couldn't read. Too many emotions.

"Well believe it." I said sighing and smiling slightly, "Just like ghosts, you got to believe in them because it's real."

"Like me."

Paul and I both whirled around and Ella was hovering off the ground a few feet ahead of us.

"Ella, just the girl we wanted to talk to." I said.

"I'm not talking to you bitch!" she hissed at me. Paul and I smiled and gave each other sideway glances,

"If she wants us to get rough…" I said smiling.

"Let's do this then." Paul said smiling back, this time Ella wasn't going to hold me down.


	7. Nightly Escapade

Chapter 7: Nightly Escapade

o0o

A book went flying past my head, with an annoying scream coming from Ella. She was getting very frustrated apparently. Then again so would I if _I_ was getting _my_ ass kicked. This is kind of what we were doing.

She was pretty bad at channeling her anger which was good for us, except now as she got more and more angry, she started to create a whirlwind of books and chairs. A chair narrowly missed my head as I ducked,

"Paul! What are we supposed to do?" I asked; fighting her wasn't getting us anywhere.

"I don't know." He said loudly back to me, Ella was making enough noise on her own with her annoying screaming. Paul was concentrating on _not_ getting hit by the many books now flying through the air. I got up from my ducked down position and ran to Paul as fast as I could. It felt like I was in a war movie or something; everything was pure chaos.

Books were flying everywhere with chairs, and now she was ripping the books apart with her mind, the pages flying, everything tossing like a tornado.

"I think we need a plan, she is getting better at this!" I yelled to him and he nodded. Suddenly a table came bounding our way and we both dived behind a book shelf.

"She's gone mental." I breathed heavily. We were both lying on the ground.

"This is fun.' Paul said smiling. I smiled back. Okay I _know_ it seems psycho but I _did _miss the old days where I completely ruled over the nasty ghosts. But Ella was starting to get really annoying, _really_ fast and my smiled faded away.

"Well we can't shift with her, sadly, because Mrs. Hackteur says we have to let them, 'move on'." Paul rolled his blue eyes expressively.

"I guess we are going to have to do this the long way then." I replied.

"Come out and play!" Ella demanded sending hundreds of pages from books our direction. Paul and I got up as the paper hit us like a wave.

"She is creating a huge mess, let's just kick her little butt then deal with the rest of the job later!" I yelled to him holding back the paper with my hands.

"I say we make it a competition." Paul said flashing a mischievous grin.

"Everything is with you." I said rolling my eyes.

"Afraid to lose Simon?" he asked mockingly.

"No." I growled, "Fine, you're on." We both ran opposite directions from the bookshelf, out into the open. A huge book came flying into Paul but he caught it and threw it back at Ella, hitting her right in stomach. She cried out in pain and glared at him.

"Point for me!" Paul said, racing by the flying books and paper, smiling. I ran faster just as Ella got up and threw a punch at me, I caught the fist and drove it back in a painful position. She screamed out in pain,

"Point for Suze." I said with a winning smile back to Paul. Suddenly Ella screamed out in rage and threw me back onto the ground,

"You want to play games then? FINE!" she yelled and the room broke out in pure chaos. I could barely see with all the pages of books flying everywhere and I spent most of my energy ducking from books and chairs.

Paul dodged a book aimed at his head and then a chair at his side, then another book came _right_ after it and I was _sure_ it was going to hit him right in the face... but instead he disappeared. I looked around in confusion, did he just _dematerialize_? He suddenly appeared beside me,

"Cheater." I teased and he smiled,

"Shifter."

Suddenly I was hit back with a very strong force. I'm guessing a book hit me in the face, and believe me it _stung_. I landed in-between two book aisles and Paul laughed at my poor dodging skills. Grrr…

Then the two shelves fell inward towards me, all the books falling on top of me. I screamed out in terror; I was going to be crushed! Paul ran and held up one of the book shelves whilst I got the other, we both moved out of the way and they fell inwardly with a crash.

"Thanks." I said, my breath was ragged and my hair was in my face.

"No prob." He said coolly but he also was breathing hard and looked tired. Alright, this little bitch was so DEAD (ha, no pun intended) she can **not** try to kill me and then get away with it. Again. I blindly ran through a mass of books and paper and punched her as hard as I could in the face for a number of reasons,

1- She _tried_ to kill me! Numerous times now!

2- Paul had to practically save me again; I already was in his life debt after the beach fiasco!

3- And of course, she was just pissing me off!

She flew backwards several feet, breaking through a large stain-glass window behind her. All the chaos immediately stopped, the books and paper and chairs fell to the ground and all was silent. I knew she wasn't going to come back for a little while. Paul looked at me, impressed. I smiled to him with one eyebrow raised,

"I win."

o0o

"You do _not_ comprehend how furious Mr. Saliner is!" Mrs. Hackteur yelled at Paul and me; we were sitting down on a bench in the MED room alone with Father Dom and the wrath of Mrs. Hackteur. "Do you understand the costs of the damages? The library is practically destroyed, many books ruined and the window…" she said and then sighed in deep frustration.

"Uh, I guess I can pay for it…" Paul suggested sheepishly. Rich boy to the rescue? We both did feel slightly sorry, as fun as it had been we could have managed not to engage in a fight and well, _ruin _the hotel's library.

"No Mr. Slater that won't be necessary. The hotel will cover it, you can understand they are trying to brush this ghostly manner under the rug quite quickly. But I can NOT believe you two would act like such, such children and…" she was so mad it was like she couldn't think of her words. Let me tell you she was scary when mad, and I don't scare easily.

"It was lucky both of you didn't get hurt." Father Dom said, "But I would expect far better behavior from the both of you. Susannah I thought you let go of these ways, well by… fighting a ghost. I thought you had a more peaceful resolution."

"If necessary! And it was!" I argued.

"You could have came and told the rest of MED." Father Dom said and I shut my mouth. I was so tired of asking for help, I _never_ used to have to ask for help and now it seemed like it was _all_ the time.

"We are both deeply sorry." Paul said with remorse in his voice. He was such a good liar. After a few more minutes of Mrs. Hackteur yelling again, she dismissed us and we finally left the room.

"Well _that_ was fun." Paul said smirking. I rolled my eyes,

"Which part, Mrs. Hackteur yelling at us or me beating you?"

"You didn't beat me." Paul said as we climbed the stairs to our rooms' floor.

"What?" I demanded, "Pu-lease Paul you _know_ I did." I said laughing, "I was MY punch that brought her down." Paul chuckled,

"Yeah, yeah. Maybe." We walked in silence for a little while until he finally spoke up,

"Why are you with Danny?" he asked and I whirled around to face him.

"What?" I asked. _This_ was random.

"How could you go on and on about Jesse being your true love for years then suddenly go for… Danny." He said with distaste.

"I already told you, Jesse and I know that it's for the best." I said shaking my head, "Besides, what do you have against Danny?" I asked. Paul looked angry,

"He is using you!" he pointed out. I gasped,

"What? He is _not_ using me!" I said, my anger rising.

"Suze, come on, I know people like Danny. Wanting all the girls he can and getting all he can get from one." Paul said.

"People like you?" I said with venom. "You don't even know him!"

"Either do you." He said.

"I do better than you! I trust Danny, ok?" I said, getting pissed off. "What does it even matter?"

"Because you're my friend Suze, and I know Danny is going to end up hurting you." _Friend_? That seemed like such a foreign word with Paul.

"I seriously doubt that." I spat, "Danny likes me, a lot." I said, but I found myself trying to convince… well, myself.

"I mean I'm not saying he is a bad guy…"

"Which you are."

"But to him you are his, what was it? Fuckbunny?" Paul said smiling cockily. I was at a loss for words. Paul shrugged and continued to walk; I ran after him and pulled him by the arm angrily.

"Paul you did _not_ just say that!" I said in shock. "Of all people…"

"What do you mean?" he snapped suddenly.

"Like you aren't the person you just described." I said laughing in a mean way. Paul stepped closer to me and I found myself back to back on the wall.

"How can you say that Suze? I always care about the people I let close to me. I don't use them for friggin _sex_, or just to look good with someone beautiful on my arm." He said with anger.

"W-what?" I stuttered for a number of reasons. How could Paul say that Danny was using me for… for SEX. Asshole. And for someone beautiful on their arm?

"Uh, HELLO. Earth to Slater, what is Shannon to you? Your relationship is all about sex and having someone good looking on both your arms. Some sort of sick show and tell." I said.

Paul grabbed me by my arms and I was pushed a little into the wall. He stood close and looked down on me, which wasn't necessarily demeaning as I am about 5'4 and he is over 6 feet. Him and Jesse shared that in common. Probably the only thing. His face was quite close to mine,

"How dare you say that? I do _not_ use Shannon. We have love for each other, something you and Danny _clearly _don't." he hissed. I was just about to yell at him until none other then Danny came bounding down the hall,

"Suze!" he said with a worried expression. I shoved Paul away from me as Danny gave me a curious glance; Paul looked smug on the other hand.

"Suze are you alright?" he asked giving me a hug.

"Fine Danny." I said hugging him tight and giving Paul a, 'ha, he does care!' look on my face.

"We all heard about the ghost attacking you guys. I was worried about you." He said holding my hands and looking into my eyes.

"I'm fine, really." I said laughing. Danny looked to Paul now,

"Heard it was Suze who took the ghost down." He said looking _way_ smug. Paul glared,

"After saving her again, see it _does_ get tiring." He said with a sly smile. Danny's grip on my hand tightened,

"Whatever Slater." He growled. Paul gave me a lazy nod,

"We were having fun, weren't we Suze?" he asked.

"Uh, right. Fighting the ghost was fun." I said looking down at the floor. Danny's grip tightened more, "Uh, ow much?" I winced.

"Cool." Danny said through gritted teeth. He continued to glare at Paul and Paul smiled coolly back, these two were NOT getting in a fight on MY watch.

"Come on, let's go!" I said into Danny's ear and pulled him along. We walked past Shannon as I heard her yell,

"Paulie!" I quickly glanced back to see the blonde jump literally into his arms happily. I dragged Danny into his room and he shut the door.

"What was _that_ all about Suze?" he demanded.

"What?" I asked rubbing my poor hand.

"I swear I can't leave you and Slater alone…" he said mumbling.

"Why?" I now demanded.

"I don't trust him!" he said looking angry.

"Well trust me then! Paul won't try _anything_, he loves Shannon." I said.

"The way he talks… I don't know. He acts so damn cocky about everything… lets just say he knows what to say to make me angry."

"He is good at that." I said holding Danny's hand reassuringly. "But just don't listen, he was _nothing_ to me before, and he isn't now, okay?" I said. Which wasn't half a lie, see he was _something_ to me a long time ago, but it was true... he was nothing now, a 'friend' if that. Danny smiled,

"Yeah, okay." He said pulling me into a kiss. I melted right away. I ran my hands through his soft black hair and kissed him back. I had no idea where this relationship was taking us. We weren't anything definitively, we had no labels. I wasn't sure I wanted one either. Was that bad? I wasn't sure I wanted some sort of boyfriend after Jesse, just yet. It had to be extra special.

My irrelavant thoughts were erased as we fell back onto the bed and our kissing suddenly got more passionate. I lifted his shirt over his head and ran my hand down his muscles. Danny's hands slowly crept up my shirt and I suddenly pushed him off.

"What the-?" he asked in surprise. I rolled off the bed and stood up quickly, my breathing was irregular.

"Uh, sorry… I just…" I said drifting off. Why _was_ I stopping? I didn't know but I felt like I had to. Danny stood up and looked at me curiously,

"What's wrong Suze?" he asked. It was hard to form a sentence looking at him with his shirt off but I managed to,

"I just, um, look not now okay? I don't know… I just need space right now." I said.

"Space for what?" Dan asked, looking even more confused.

"I don't know. Myself? I just can't do this right now." I said walking to the door and opening it. Danny grabbed my wrist,

"Did I do something wrong?" he asked.

"No, not you." I said.

"Slater? De Silva?" he growled. "It was Paul wasn't it? Why do you even care what he says?"

"God, no Danny!" I said exasperated, "Stop being so possessive. I need time to think!" I said, feeling mean, but I couldn't answer him anyways. All the words that Paul had said were ringing in my ears, was Danny really just one of those guys who wanted every girl he could get… (and would get every girl of course) was he?

I tugged my wrist away from him and walked off to my room. I locked the door behind me and breathed out slowly. I grabbed a light jacket and put it over a black tank top. I kept my jeans and put my hair back up into a pony tail and got some money from my purse. I walked out of the room and quickly took the elevator downstairs to the lobby.

As I walked towards the hotel doors I glanced sideways and noticed Paul and Shannon laughing at the bar. Hannah and Nate were talking with Jesse. I walked out quicker so no one would notice me as I hailed for a taxi. I just needed some alone time.

o0o

This alone time SUCKED. At first I had gotten out of the taxi and walked around downtown Newport for a while, looking in the shops and the restaurants. I tried to think about my time with Danny, was it all just a joke? Why was I letting anything Paul say get to me, who cares about what he says… right?

… …_It was raining. Raining down hard outside, I was sheltered from the rain as I stood under the roof of the outside porch. I had tears streaming down my face matching the rain fittingly. _

"_Querida, he is gone. You should be happy." Jesse said looking at me worriedly. He was worried about me… he didn't know. He didn't know that as much as I loved him; and god did I love him… that I had loved Paul. I tiny part of my heart had loved Paul and it was shattered. But it was all for the best, I tired to convince myself. The biggest part of my heart loved Jesse more than anything, so shouldn't this be good? Paul was finally out of the way, why shouldn't I be happy?_

"_I don't know." I said truthfully. "It's what he said... I… I think I broke his heart." I said letting out a quiet sob. _

"_Why do you care what he says?" Jesse asked gently. I couldn't answer the question, not now and not then. _

"_I don't know Jesse." I said and he held me in his arms. "I really don't know. I guess it's hard to say goodbye without really saying it." I said as he stroked my hair. _

"_Si querida." He said and kissed the top of my head. I looked up into his dark eyes,_

"_Jesse you are so understanding." I said, "How can you be, you hate him…" _

"_I do not like Mr. Slater very much it is true Susannah." He said darkly then turned to me with a gentle smile, "But I have so much love for you." He said. I smiled and tilted my head up, kissing him on the lips. _

"_Thank you…" I said, I was glad he was there. The man I loved more than I have ever loved anything in my life. I was glad he was holding me, protecting me, loving me… _…

So why did I not feel the same when Danny was trying to protect me? Love me? I got frustrated and began to run, run down the streets and back alleys until it was hard to breathe. I wanted to run away from everything, MED, Jesse having to be a ghost, Paul's words that hurt, Danny. Just keep moving, I always told myself.

I had to stop to get some air, to just breathe. I lent my back against the cold, cobble stone wall. It was getting dark, and I was in some deserted alleyway.

Suddenly I heard a trash can tip over, my nerves shot through me, fear spreading throughout my body. I started to breathe heavily and found myself standing up very straight, straining to hear anything. Then I head voices, male voices coming my way.

They were laughing and were very close. For some reason I felt like I couldn't move, WHY COULDN'T I MOVE? Fear had taken its toll on me as the men were directly in front of me. Right before they were in view I quickly crouched down beside a nearby dumpster hoping I would blend in into the darkness.

I don't know why I was so scared, something about their voices. Something inside told me to not trust them. Female intuition? Who knows. But I was right.

There were three of them, all looking about in their twenties. I could see one had shaggy black hair and was laughing at something one of them said. Another with short brown hair, he had scruff over his face. And the other had reddish brown hair and a beard. He was holding a bottle of something wrapped in a brown paper bag. It ain't no juice box he's drinking my friends.

"Ha-ha, fuck that!" one of them laughed about whatever they were talking about and grabbed the bottle from the reddish haired guy and took a swing from it. They laughed a little then suddenly,

"What's this?" The guy with shaggy black hair said looking in my direction. I wished on everything in the world that the ground would just swallow me up; get me away from these losers.

"Ah, a little girl… come out and play." The reddish haired guy said and he grabbed me by the arms forcefully and lifted me up, I let out a gasp and tried to pull away. My legs felt weak I was so scared,

"Aw, ain't she a pretty little thing." The reddish haired guy said, giving me a chill up my spine and NOT in a good way. I pulled harder but this guy had an iron grip on me,

"Please, let me go!" I said. Why was I scared of them? I mean, I've taken on plenty of ghosts _and_ a few people in my whole life… Oh right, they were three grown men, slightly drunk, probably horny and in a deserted back alley… with me. Gotcha.

"Go ahead, whine and cry!" the brown haired one said, laughing in my face. The others laughed. I kicked up and it hit him in the stomach, he fell forward and looked up at me, his face contorted with anger – opsie. He got up and slapped me on the face, hard. I winced but I wouldn't let myself cry out in pain, not for them.

"Bad girl!" he said now laughing.

"Come on let's have fun with this one." The shaggy black haired one said. They all smiled and shoved me around, from one to the reddish haired to the black haired; they shoved me back and forth. I felt like I couldn't stand, I was scared and the constant shoving was starting to make me feel dizzy and it hurt.

"Stop it!" I screamed as loud as I could as I fell into the brown haired guy's arms and he pulled me in close. He smiled and pressed his lips into mine; let me tell you it was HORRIBLE. He was practically crushing my mouth, all I could smell was musty alcohol and all I wanted to do was get away. I squirmed against him but he was freaking strong. I pushed hard and he finally let go and I stumbled back and fell on the cold ground. He laughed hard, the reddish haired guy picked me up by my pony tail and I yelled out,

"HELP!" but no one could hear me. My pony tail elastic fell out and my hair fell around my face. As I tried to run away he caught me and swung me back into their little circle. I screamed and kicked and yelled for help, for anything – but no one came. I was tossed into the guy with black shaggy hair and he laughed as he slowly took off my light jacket, he threw it on the ground. I shivered immensely, all I had on was my black tank top and I was scared, so scared.

I could take people on; of course I could fight… I was pretty good at it too. Especially when I felt the guy's hand go up my side I threw a punch right at his face. Good punch. His head came back up and before he realized it I punched him hard again, happy to see blood coming from his nose. I wanted to hit him again and again for even THINKING about touching me. I tried to punch again but I hit nothing as the reddish haired guy pulled me back,

"Whoa!" he laughed as I fought and lunged at the guy, I screamed and kicked the guy holding me, in the shins. He immediately let go and yelled out in pain, I turned to knee him in the face but I felt a hand on my shoulder and it whipped me around, hard. The next thing I knew I was on the ground, incredible pain on the side of my face – that guy had **punched** me!

I got up on my knees slowly then he ran up and kicked me in the stomach. I felt like I couldn't breathe, all I could feel was pain and I panted for breath. The others laughed, it wasn't fair. I was strong, but when you are against three strong males it was a _little_ uneven. I spat on the ground and breathed for a few seconds, then I got up and lunged myself at the guy, knocking him onto the wall and I punched him in the stomach a few times as hard as I could manage, see how HE likes it.

"Laugh about this!" I said smiling victoriously giving him another hard punch as he grabbed his stomach and let out a moan. The other two guys grabbed me by the arms and dragged me away from the man, holding me back. I twisted and pulled and spat at them as they held me like a wild dog.

"Fucking crazy, this one." The guy with the black hair said. The brown haired man got up slowly, picking up his bottle of whatever. He took a long, last gulp on it then broke it on the wall, holding the handle. Now all that was left in his hand was the handle of the bottle and spiky glass at the end. A pure look of terror washed over on my face as I struggled even harder against the two men holding me.

"GET AWAY FROM ME!" I shrieked and tried to kick anything but it wasn't going to work this time. The man grabbed my neck with his hand and tightened his grip and I let out a gasp. I could barely breathe…

"Don't be such a stupid girl." He said and put the sharp glass to throat. He dragged in slowly across my skin, not hard enough to cut me but so I was scared to death that he would, he dragged in until it met one of my tank top straps and in a single movement I hard a snap and the strap broke in half with a slight cut of the glass. I could feel tears on the brim of my eyes, I suddenly felt so helpless…

He tightened his grip on my throat but the other men held my arms so I couldn't get his hands off. He put the glass to my throat and dug it in a little, leaving a mark and I tried to cry out in pain but nothing came out.

"This is for being such a little bitch!" he hissed and put it a little deeper, this time I did cry out but it wasn't a cry of pain, I yelled it in my head as well it echoed into the streets,

"JESSE!"

In an instant Jesse de Silva appeared by my side.

"Nombre de Dios!" he said after taking in everything he was seeing, and then he unleashed his hell. The guys would _never_ know it was coming and _I_ certainly wasn't going to be telling them. See they couldn't **see **Jesse like I could so when the man with the pointy glass at my neck suddenly got shoved against the farther wall, the glass shattering everywhere and was suddenly being beaten with fists so full of fury it scared me, they all panicked. From their view their little comrade was being beaten up by nothing.

"What the-" the reddish haired guy said then Jesse uppercut him in the chin and he stumbled backwards, falling over a garbage can. Jesse picked him up and flung him against the wall angrily,

"Don't you EVER touch Susannah again, EVER!" he yelled. (Not like they could _hear_ him but whatever.) His scar was a scorching white and his hands remained in fists, clenched so hard they were white as well. He looked _extremely_ dangerous, the men would probably pee their pants if they saw him.

Then again this was **much **better to watch as he totally beat them up and they couldn't even see him. The guy with the black hair tried to make a run for it but Jesse grabbed him and punched him so hard that he immediately fell to the ground. Knocked out cold. The brown haired guy got up and stumbled away,

"WHAT IS FREAKING GOING ON HERE?" he yelled out and Jesse tripped him easily as he ran by. The man fell to the ground and it looked like he was going to cry. I walked over to him,

"Don't mess with me." I said dangerously low and he got up nodding his head frantically and then walked backwards quickly only for Jesse to get a hold of him and punch him one last time. The guy grabbed his now, broken nose and ran off. The man with the reddish hair followed him, both yelling for their lives. I let out a sigh of relief then suddenly my legs caved in, but Jesse caught me.

"Oh Susannah…" he said looking at me, holding me in his strong arms.

"Jesse." I said smiling weakly. "My hero." Jesse smiled but he had a worried expression all the same.

"Yo no puedo creer esos bastardos… Como pueden hacer que a tu?" he said angrily into the night. So… say what?

"Wha…?" I asked, I suddenly was very tired and I felt weak. I had kicked some ass, well, yes I needed help in the end but wasn't that what it was all about… MED? Yes you can do a lot yourself but working together is a lot easier and more efficient.

"Susannah I am so sorry." Jesse said resting his head on mine.

"For what?" I asked gasping.

"We were all worried where you went… why did I not come earlier? Then… then all of this could have been avoided." He said sadly into my hair then looked me in the eyes.

"Jesse you were amazing." I said smiling to him. "Don't beat your self up." I said with a small laugh immediately regretting it, my stomach hurt from where it had been kicked. Jesse looked worried again and he looked over my wounds,

"Oh Susannah…" he said again. It made me want to sing…

OHHHHH SUSANNAH, NOW DON'T YOU CRY FOR ME! – k, slightly psycho.

"It's okay…" I started to say but he cut me off,

"Why did you not call me earlier, _querida_? Why did you wait until you could fight no more?" he asked his beautiful eyes looking sad.

"I… I don't know." I said puzzled. "I guess I forgot I could." I said truthfully. "It's been so long since I called you to me." I said hugging him.

"That it has." He agreed.

"Let's go back." I told him and he nodded and he helped me walk out of the alleyway. I got a taxi and he got in with me,

"I am _not_ leaving your side, _querida_." He said sternly and I couldn't feel anymore happy about that. It was dark in the taxi on the ride to the hotel so I rested against Jesse, my head on his strong, soft shoulder.

"Thank you…" I whispered.

"Anything for you _querida_. Haria algo para usted. Tu entendera que uno dia…" he whispered. I wanted to ask him what he meant but my eyelids felt heavy and I suddenly fell asleep.

o0o

I awoke to Jesse softly nudging me,

"We are back, _querida_." He said as I groggily paid the taxi driver and got out, I stumbled on the curb and Jesse helped me up and into the hotel. Immediately I was rushed by people.

"Suze, what happened?" Danny asked, holding my hand and looking at my bruised face and cut neck.

"Oh my god." Paul said and Shannon (complete in a pink slip) was holding onto Paul's arm tightly,

"Suze, what did you do?" she asked high pitched.

"Do you need any, like, band aids or… something?" Nate offered, moving his shaggy hair off his face to get a better look at me. And by noticing Aimee with a look of sheer horror on her face, I MUST look bad. Well my hair was pulled and dirty and probably a wreck, one strap on my tank top was broken, I had a rapidly growing bruise on my stomach and cheek and my throat had a cut on it. Who_ knows_ what else...

"Where is Father Dom?" I asked. I didn't care if Mrs. Hackteur knew; I didn't care if she screamed at me all night long because I had left the hotel at night, alone. I just didn't want Father Dom to worry, the poor old man worried enough about me.

"Father D and Mrs. Hack are both upstairs, sleeping." Danny said gently touching my cheek with his hand. "My God, what happened to you?" he asked.

"Nothing…" I muttered.

"Some bastardos attacked her in the street!" Jesse said angrily, I could feel his angered energy radiating off him. Everyone gasped,

"Oh my god, I can not believe that. Are you okay Suze?" Shannon asked, flipping her blonde hair. I was surprised she cared to ask, I tired to answer her but everyone was cutting me off with questions and concerns.

"OH MY GOD!" Hannah freaked when she saw me (she just materialized) "What happened?"

"Do you need medical attention?" Marcus asked looking _way_ concern for me as he brushed his shaggy brown hair away and pushed up his glasses. Aw, how cute. Ew no, not in _that_ way.

"No please I'm fi-" I started to say but was cut off from the many voices,

"I'll kill them…" Danny was saying, "Who are they Suze!" he practically demanded to know, it wasn't even a question.

"I don't know." I said trying to answer all the questions. I felt weak in the knees and two sets of hands caught me, Danny and Jesse.

"Look I'll answer all your questions later, I just… I just don't want Father Dom or Mrs. Hackteur finding out, _no one_ can tell them, I think I've had enough trouble for one full day." I sighed exhausted. "I just want to go to bed." I mumbled.

"Surely you can not walk Susannah. You must rest before you run off." Jesse said smiling slightly.

"Thanks Jesse." I said smiling a little.

"I'll carry you." Danny suggested.

"Like a knight in shinning armor!" Hannah said giggling.

"I'll go get my first aid kit…" I heard Marcus talk to himself as he walked to the long stairs.

"How about we do this the fast way?" Paul said smirking. He grabbed my hand,

"Shift?" he asked and I nodded and leaned onto him and he held me, everyone looked confused, and in a blink of an eye we disappeared.

Suddenly we were in my room, the hotel room I shared with Shannon and Aimee. I felt a huge headache come on and I lent on Paul, my arms around his neck.

"Shifting headache?" he asked and he led me over to my bed.

"Killer…" I sighed. He laid me on my bed gently and but his hand to his own head and groaned but smiled,

"Same." He said rubbing his temples.

"You have to teach me this dematerializing trick of yours Paul." I said.

"Shifters can do amazing things." Paul said smirking, "If only you continued your lessons…" I laughed,

"Well... teach me one day, I'm still interested." There was a sudden silence. Paul sat in one of the arm chairs lazily and looked tired. I felt like I was going to fall asleep any second but I stayed awake because I knew everyone was going to come bursting in, in a minute.

"Thanks Paul…" I said weakly and he looked up to me.

"For what?" he asked.

"I don't know… for helping me." I said thinking about the past few times this past few weeks namely. I never thought I'd be able to admit that I needed help, or that _Paul_ of all people I would be thanking. But I had learned a lot in only this short while.

"No prob." He said flashing a smile. On cue, everyone came bursting in the room.

"How did you do _that_?" Many of them asked.

"Shifters can do many things." Paul said smiling a cocky grin. _Here_ we go…

"Right." Danny said ignoring him, he walked up to me and kneeled by me, holding me hand. "I… I don't know what to say." He whispered to me. "I just wish I was there to protect you." He said and I smiled,

"It's okay Danny, you don't always have to… I did pretty well but Jesse did the best." I admitted laughing, "Don't worry about it, it was my mistake and there was nothing you could do. I know you would have if you could though." I said and he nodded.

"Are you sure you don't need anything Suze? A coke or a magazine, well I know that won't help but I don't know…" Aimee mumbled looking sympathetic. She was trying to be a good friend,

"No its okay Aimee. I'm truly okay." I said smiling to her and she smiled and nodded, sitting on her own bed.

"Well, I hope you feel better then." Nate said squeezing my hand gently. "Holler if you need anything!" he said and Hannah gave me a quick hug before walking out with Nate as they ran into Marcus (holding his first aid kit) he left the kit as they turned him around and they all walked out. Shannon and Paul were quietly talking and then saw that everyone was leaving…

"Well, night Suze! I'm going to, uh, sleep somewhere _else_ tonight, so you can get your beauty sleep!" She said and I held back a laugh, "Oh and by the way you can use my cover up if you want, you need it!" she said before dashing out. Okay, was that her being nice or mean? I could never tell. Paul gave a small smile,

"I'll talk to you later Suze." he said, "Get your rest." Then he followed Shannon, out the door. WHY did he always have to TALK to me? It always results in me getting all riled up and angry. Jesse crouched down on my other side,

"_Querida_…" he said but then seemed at a loss for words. Danny looked from me then to Jesse and nodded. He kissed me on the lips quickly,

"Call me if you need anything, I'm only a knock away." He said smiling. Finally he knew that Jesse and I needed alone time, that Jesse nor Paul or whoever _wasn't_ trying to steal me away, they were my friends (well… I don't know about _Paul_) I smiled to him then as he walked out and closed the door, I looked around and found no one there. Aimee must have left as well…

"I was so angry tonight with… them. They… they _hurt_ you." He said looking sad with a hint of anger.

"Jesse please don't be sad for me. I learned a great deal from tonight. One being not to travel alone in a back alley…"

"Si quierda, _that_ was stupid." He said and I laughed.

"I know… and I know that I _do _need to remember that as independent as I can be… I still need the ones around me that I love and that are my friends to help me. Like you did tonight." I said looking into his deep brown eyes.

"And, do not run away… it never works." Jesse added smiling. I smiled,

"Yes, sometimes the scariest thing is facing your fears… but it is the only way to do it." I said. Then we hugged and held tight for a while after suddenly realizing how scary the whole night really had been...

"I do love you _querida_.' Jesse whispered into my ear with a string of beautiful Spanish words. I sighed in relaxation into him, I missed when he used to say these things to me.

I just missed _him_.

"I'll remember to call you, uh, quicker next time." I said laughing. Jesse laughed as well,

"Do not ever forget." He said and I closed my eyes in happiness. And I fell asleep in a matter of mere seconds dreaming of good things for tomorrow.


	8. Library Liaison

**Hey everyone -**

**Thank you for the positive reviews**, **I am happy to be writing again and happier people are enjoying it. Just to quickly answer some recurring questions from reviews and private messages...**

**I starting writing this fic years ago and came back to it recently to re edit the chapters that I had previously written, and produce new chapters. If any of this is familiar to anyone, it is because it is a re edited version of my story from years back. I would like to continue writing it with the purpose of finishing it (though it is expected to be quite long, so it's quite the task to take on)  
**

**My inspiration for Shannon is sort of a play off of 'kristin cavallari' from her 'laguna beach' days, if anyone is familiar. With more pink bitch.**

**Hannah was inspired from 'rachel' of the 'big brother' fame, if anyone is familiar as well (I know these are reality shows. don't laugh) but more lovable (of course).  
**

**Danny has Irish heritage, and whilst he lived there when he was younger, he grew up prodominately in the US. His Irish accent is not stong as if he grew up in Ireland but it is laced in his words.**

**Lastly, and most importantly, I will not be revealing if this fic will be a J/S, P/S or D/S before the ending, so you are just going to have to keep reading to find out ;)**

**Continue reading, reviewing, and questioning!**

**xx Fox  
**

* * *

Chapter 8: Library Liaison

o0o

I woke up with the sun in my eyes. OUCHY, OUCHY, OUCHY, HOT, HOT, HOT!

Nah, I'm kidding. I blinked a few times and sat up slowly, okay _now_ it's 'OUCHY!' My hand immediately came to my stomach; it was really sore. I groggily shook my head and then paid attention to my surroundings.

I was still in my hotel room, no one else was in the room but the curtains were both open letting the Californian sun, shine in the room. I glanced over at a clock on the bedside table, "12:30" it read. Crap.

I got up quickly but fell down on the plush carpet floor in pain. What had happened to me?

Oh yeah, three guys attacked me and now I have the bruises to prove it. I got up slowly and sat on the bed, my head hurt like crazy. Suddenly the door swung open and Danny came in, carrying a tray with food on it.

"You're awake!" he smiled happily, "Finally! I thought Sleeping Beauty would _never_ wake up!" he said laughing, his accent sending good shivers down my spine. He put the tray down beside me. It had pancakes and bacon with orange juice on the side.

"Thanks Danny." I said truly touched.

"No prob' missy." He said easily. He looked at me with concern,

"You should rest more… last night was tough on you." He said cupping my face in his hands. I grabbed his shirt and pulled him into a kiss,

"Mmmm okay." I said smiling against his lips. I ate breakfast, and we chatted easily to each other for a while. Once I was done I got up and was ready to go.

"How about this Suze," Danny said, "you stay **_here_** and **_I_** go… k?"

"Uh, no." I said laughing. "I'm fine, alright?" But Danny only shook his head.

"Nope, these are orders from Father Dom himself; you are to rest up at least a full day. We told him that you fell down the stairs..." He said. "Heard you're quite clumsy, he bought it up right away!" he chirped.

"What is Father Dom like, a doctor now? I'm fine." I said, getting annoyed. I just wanted to get out there and stop self pitying. "Also, _fell down the stairs?_ That's the worst excuse ever! And I'm not that clumsy..." I mumbled.

"Sorry darlin'." Danny said flashing a handsome smile, "But that is what I was told." He said walking to the door. I bolted to it and tried to open it but he held me back, "Suze, don't be a pill. Just stay and REST." He said laughing.

"But what about Ella?" I asked.

"She is fine, we talked to her this morning, something about revenge, yaddy yaddy – yawn. I will tell you later okay?" he said, quickly kissing my forehead.

"But, but, but-"

"Shut up Suze." And with that he left. Well, might as well make the best of this – so I took a very long, hot shower. It felt really good; my body didn't hurt as much after, which was nice.

Then I got into my comfiest, ripped jeans and silk tee. Once my hair was wet and combed out, I relaxed in bed a little longer, eating some of the chocolate from the mini bar. Ah… maybe staying in isn't so bad after all.

o0o

After a few hours, and everything had gone dark, I woke up from my nap. Aimee was in the room humming a song,

"Oh, you're awake. Did I wake you?" she asked looking guilty.

"No, no." I said stretching out. I got up feeling way more refreshed. "So tell me what happened today." I asked her.

"Well, we talked to the ghost. Well not ME but, Jesse, Paul, Danny, Hannah and Nate. They say that she wants revenge… that a long time ago, I guess when she died, there was an accident and now the hotel was to pay." Aimee said shuddering.

"Sooo, what does that even mean exactly?" I asked in confusion.

"Well, Marcus dug deeper and he did find something very interesting. Apparently years ago, a girl… we assume was Ella, was in the bathroom in her suite. The water pipes broke and water was everywhere, coming out of her shower. Then she must have slipped and fell because when they found her, she was on the floor unconscious, bleeding, and had drowned." Aimee said. I gulped, well THAT'S a crappy way to die.

"Wait, then why couldn't we find this information earlier when we all checked?" I asked.

"Well we told Mr. Saliner all we knew so far and he agreed to show us confidential files, and her death was in there. He hadn't even read these files himself. Apparently the hotel didn't want it getting around that because of their faulty pipelines, a girl died. But it was years ago so I'm sure the pipelines are fixed." Aimee said, trying to reassure herself. "So no one had really known about it, which is why we had so many dead ends."

"So... who is to blame?" I asked, rubbing my eyes a little wearily.

"No one here, I suppose. Who can you blame when something happened on accident."

"Did her parents sue the hotel? I'm sure this would have made some sort of news headlines." I asked.

"Yes, we assumed the same. Marcus checked into that and there was nothing. There was some old documentation on a lawsuit though. It was a quick settlement with the hotel and Ella's parents. The hotel paid a pretty hefty sum, but it was all to be kept quiet. I'm sure her parents didn't want all the media attention anyways. They had just lost a daughter."

"Shit, I take one little nap and Scooby Doo and the gang crack the case huh?" I laughed. Aimee turned pink,

"Well it was mostly Marcus b-but, we could have really used you Suze. I'm glad you're okay. That really scared me, last night."

"I'm from New York, I'm tough as nails." I remarked.

"You weren't scared?" She asked, wide eyed.

"...No-no. I was. It was a stupid situation to get into. I used to be this big brave Suze. Running around, kicking ass... ghost ass." I coughed, "I was so independent. But that was sort of my fault too. I'm always moving, always running. Sometimes I need to sit back and let others help me. From what the past few weeks here have taught me anyways."

"Well that's very insightful Suze." Aimee said with a small laugh, "I'm glad you're getting something out of this. I-I feel like I am too." She said.

"You'll find your courage, Aimee." I said and she blushed horribly.

"Y-yeah." She mumbled. Enough talk, I needed to get to the action. If there was still any left for me.

"Right… well… I'm going to go downstairs and check on everyone okay?"

"Alrighty." Aimee answered with a smile.

"Thanks for the info, by the way!" I yelled before dashing out the door.

o0o

The hotel was very quiet, I looked at my watch, and it was already 10:40pm. I definitely had a **long** nap! But I felt much better; my hair was even still slightly damp from sleeping on it wet. I walked down the plush staircases, suddenly realizing with a small laugh that I was in my bare feet.

Then I snuck into the library where it was very dark due to the fact that the power was out in there, as they were renovating it (due to Ella... and myself and Paul, cough.) The hardwood floor was cool under my feet as I walked towards a light that was shinning near the back of the library. No one was supposed to be in there, so… might as well check it out. When I got to the light I found nothing, but a small lamp on one desk, pushed next to a bookshelf. Weird.

I suddenly felt a set of hands grab my shoulders.

"AH!" I screamed, and then elbowed whatever it was in the gut.

"God!" I heard a male voice grunt in small pain, and I turned to see Paul grabbing his stomach. "I was just scaring you for fun." He said laughing.

"So **not** funny." I said dryly. Paul grinned and looked down,

"What are you doing in bare feet?" he asked and I felt embarrassment flush into me.

"I don't know." I said, "What are _you_ doing alone in the library, at the back, with a little lamp?" I asked, my eyebrows raised.

"Unlike _you_, I don't get scared of the dark or what lurks in it." he said with a cocky grin.

"I am _not_ afraid!" I said, getting annoyed.

"Then what was the '_ahhh!_' about?" he said mocking my scream except making it super girlie.

"Sorry that's Shannon's voice in bed isn't it?" I asked sweetly. His grin turned to a scowl.

"Ha." I said in victory. "So what were you doing?"

"I was looking for that damn ghost, because she _might_ just hurt someone." He said chuckling lightly, rubbing it in my face. "And they only have this lamp at the front desk." He added.

"We are supposed to look for the ghost in pairs." I said snottily.

"Oh so you came to this wrecked library for what?" He asked, eyebrows raised.

"Well I was just looking to chat. Unlike you, who was probably looking for a little shifting hmmm?" I asked cooly.

"Ooh, caught me Suze." He said, rolling his eyes.

"Why didn't you take Shannon?"

"Why didn't you take Danny?" He retorted. I gritted my teeth,

"Stop being difficult Paul." I said.

"I don't want to involve her in something that could potentially get her hurt." He said. I was taken back by his softness. Rare.

I nodded and sat on the desk behind me, he watched me.

Silence.

"Um, what?" I asked him.

"You aren't scared." He said flatly.

"Wow Paul, we established it was you in the shadows a few minutes ago." I said rolling my eyes.

"No, no." he said, looking more concerned now. "Look, three guys attacked you Suze… isn't that _slightly_ scary?"

"_Was_ scary. It's over now." I said sighing.

"Well, you should press charges." Paul said, like the lawyer in him.

"You really ARE going to be a lawyer huh? Go to law school next year. I'm sure you'll be _great_ at letting the bad guys go free. Mainly yourself. "

"Suze, I'm being serious." He said; his tone a little frustrated.

"So was I." I said looking at my nails – I need a manicure. The next time I looked up – Paul was standing right in front of me.

"Suze, you can't act all tough. Those people were wrong and…" but I cut his speech off,

"I don't even know their _names_ or anything! God, lets just look through 1000 mug shots of Newport's lowest!" I said angrily, "Paul, there isn't anything we can do. Get over it; it isn't even your problem." I said and Paul glared,

"I was _just_ trying to help." He said, hurt. "That's all I ever do with you lately, HELP."

"What do you mean?" I asked. Paul looked at me and sighed,

"Well besides the numerous times I've saved your life? Hm, well, _I'm_ the one that got you your breakfast and gave it to Danny to give to you!" he said leaning back on a book shelf looking smug.

"What?" I asked in confusion.

"Yeah, you thought Danny was Mr. Nice guy, well he didn't even **think** about breakfast for you. I was already was getting something for Shannon so I put something for you together, then _gave_ it to Danny who gave it to you. Of course it was made to look like _he_ did it." Paul said rolling his eyes.

"Well, maybe he isn't a good cook." I sniffed.

"Uh, it's a hotel Suze, we don't cook. It was the buffet in the dinning room." Paul said stifling back a laugh. I walked up and hit him in the arm, more playful then actual anger,

"Whatever. He didn't _need_ to get me anything. The only reason _you_ thought of it was because you wanted to tell me this later and make him look bad." I said.

"No, I did it because you are my friend and I care about you." He said and I laughed,

"HA! You, _care_? Right." I said laughing more but Paul suddenly looked annoyed,

"What do you mean? I'm a caring guy!" he said and it made me laugh even harder. Paul glared at me,

"Whatever Suze." He said angrily.

"Aw, don't be mad!" I said sighing, "I'm just saying that you don't care about anyone but yourself, really." I said and Paul looked skeptical,

"Right Suze, and _you_ care SO much about other people." He said.

"I do. I just don't show it much. You on the other hand don't show it because you don't." I retorted.

"Why don't you think I care?" he asked.

"Well, I don't know." I began sarcastically, "I mean, Paul I'm _not_ saying you are a _bad_ guy or anything, but it might have been the numerous times to get rid of Jesse back in the day, or to destroy my happiness, or your highly competitive nature. " I said shrugging.

"Suze, I _do_ care about you okay? I mean, I want us to be friends now, so... I care." He said.

"Yeah. Right." I said rolling my eyes. I turned to walk away, I was tired having such a serious argument but Paul grabbed my arm and pulled me around to face him, a fire burning in his eyes,

"Don't walk away when we are talking!" he said angrily. I yanked my arm out of his grip,

"Don't get angry with me just because you know you are losing this argument and you **hate** to lose." I said.

"No, it doesn't even make sense. I've been nothing but nice to you." He said.

"HA!" I said choking on a laugh, "Paul you hate Jesse who I _was _with, and you hate Danny who I _am_ with. All and all it always makes _me_ miserable." I said stating the facts.

"Jesse gets under my skin. He was pure rivalry back then, and now it's just old feelings of hate." Paul said rolling his blue eyes, "But Danny is an idiot. He doesn't know what he is even getting himself into and - I mean, he acts like you will do anything with him like your some kind of-"

"Slut?" I finished the sentence off for him. Paul nodded. "Don't _you_ dare even begin to say _anything_ about Danny. When _you_ of ALL people should know that it's not _him_ that thinks I'm the slut." I said dangerously low.

"What?" Paul asked in general confusion.

"God Paul, YOU were the one who called ME a slut!" I nearly yelled at him.

"What?" he asked again.

"On the night of the party, YOU called ME a slut! That I was Danny's .. whore!" I said with rage, remembering it. Paul looked confused then he slowly understood,

"I was drunk Suze, I didn't mean it."

"But you said it! You told me to go fuck Danny so I did, there, you happy?" I snapped, breathing hard.

"You slept with Danny because I _told_ you to?" he asked with disbelief.

"Yes." I said through gritted teeth, "Maybe I would have all along, but your words definitely helped." I said before stomping off. Paul walked quickly to catch up,

"Suze I didn't _mean_ it I mean, come on! I was drinking and it came out wrong! Also... if I called you a slut than it probably wasn't a good idea to go off a sleep with someone…" he started but I turned around fast, glaring at him, my hands in fists.

"You know what Paul? Don't. Just don't talk to me because when we do talk, we fight, and I'm tired of fighting with you." I said.

"Then stop fighting with me, you know I'm right." He said flashing a grin. I almost punched him in his perfectly fucking white dentist teeth, but instead I settled for shaking my head sadly and walking off in silence. It would piss him off more if I didn't give a reaction.

"Suze please…" I heard Paul say as he caught up with me. "I hate it when you're mad at me."

"Well get used to it." I said angrily. I could feel him try to grab my arm so instead I shoved a bunch of books off a nearby shelf at him, in return most of them did hit him,

"God Paul, back OFF!" I finally hissed and stomped off in a fit. I **knew** I was being a baby but at least he wasn't following me anymore.

o0o

The library was huge, filled with hundreds of books to choose from. Now the library was practically destroyed all because Paul and I had decided to fight Ella. From now on it's all business, I promised myself.

Suddenly I heard a giggle. I slowed down from my fast walk to a complete stop. The noise was definitely close by…

I listened for a bit, not moving a muscle. There! I heard it again. I wonder if it was Ella? Maybe I should go get some back up… but curiosity took over and I _had_ to investigate, and turn the corner.

It was too hard to see in the dark, the moon was covered by clouds out a giant window, but I _could_ make out a figure lying on one of the tables. What the hell?

"Baby…" the deformed creature said. Oh. OH. Gross. I stifled back a laugh and decided to sneakily pass by. But then, the clouds drew back and the full moon shone bright. Soon, light filled in and it was easy to see.

Oh.

They were definitely making out, practically glued to each other… but that wasn't it. It was Danny. With another girl… Danny with another girl who isn't ME. I couldn't even **process** the thought. My world felt like it was crumbling fast.

He COULDN'T be. NO. I slowly moved back, my legs felt like jelly. Then as I TRIED not to watch, I ended up backing into a shelf knocking down some books. Well THAT was stealth, no?

Suddenly Danny looked up. Something passed between us, like all time stopped. His eyes went from confusion to disbelief to, 'OH SHIT!' He quickly scrambled off whoever she was, tripping and then getting up again. I STILL stood there in shock. WHY COULDN'T I GO AWAY? The girl was no one I knew; black hair, small-fox-like face. She looked up at Danny and me and had a face like she didn't know what to say or do or why I was even here breaking this up.

"S-suze." Danny said giving a weak smile. I felt like I couldn't breathe. How could he do this?

"Dan?" the girl asked, looking at me with annoyance.

"Go." He whispered to her, looking back at me with a little fear.

"But-"

"GO!" he said sharply and she glared at him and then to me, strutting out like her night was ruined…WELL LOOK AT MY NIGHT! Danny turned to me, his black hair slightly ruffled, his shirt loose.

"Shit, Suze. It's not what it seems." He said walking slowly to me. Wow, he could have at least came up with a better line. Then, everything suddenly came flooding in and I snapped.

"Not what it seems?" I asked sharply, "From what it _seems_, is that you and some bimbo are making out, practically _fucking_ in this library. Did I get it wrong?" I hissed.

"Suze… I… I don't know what to say." Danny said, looking down at the ground guilty.

"How? HOW could you do this Danny? How can you act like I meant ANYTHING to you when you do this to me?" I snapped feeling the sting of tears but I fought them back.

"You do mean something to me…" Danny said quietly.

"Oh, _shut up_ Daniel! I was nothing. Well, fuck you." I said with so much anger it was hard to describe. I was so embarassed. I had got so caught up in some whirl wind romance that I had lost my head. I jumped in bed with some guy I barely knew, I was so ashamed. And hurt.

I tried to turn away, to try to run, but I felt a hand grab my arm and pull me back into the mess.

I turned to see Danny, his face alight in the glow of the moon. He pulled me sharply, towards the more open part of the library near the huge window. His face had too many emotions in the moonlight to read.

"Suze, please don't go." He said looking tired and ashamed. I quickly tore my arm away and shoved him back, **hard**.

"NO Dan. God, what is WRONG with you? You do this to me and expect me to come crawling back to you a second later?" I asked in disgust. "I know your some big irish playboy that has to have a new girl every DAY, but I WON'T be a part of that." I said viciously.

"Suze, I know it was a stupid mistake. REALLY stupid. I don't know why I did it. I mean… I just needed to-" I cut off his little monologue,

"Do you **think** I care?" I asked in pure annoyance.

"Please…" Danny said looking pained.

"Really Danny?" I practically yelled, I could taste tears going down my face now but I couldn't feel it anymore. "Why did you have to go and do this to me?" I said looking at him and he looked back at me with pain and sorrow. "Why did you do that when you knew I was still broken! I thought maybe **you** could help me… but I was wrong." I said, whipping away the tears and now looking angry again waiting for a response.

"Because I can't do US." He roared. "There are just so many emotions when I look into your eyes, so many feelings I get and I don't know what to do with them." He said.

"Yeah, and making out with some girl helps that?" I scoffed.

"No… It's just; I _don't_ fall for girls… not that easy. And with you it was like I was falling fast. And… I don't know, I guess I thought I could counter that by doing this," he said shaking his head, "I **know** it was stupid. I'm not sure why I went through with it." He said looking up, his brilliant hazel eyes looking hopeful. Too bad.

"I don't care." I said simply. "Fine, you don't like falling fast? Then don't at all." I spat before marching away, TRYING to hold what was left of ANY dignity. But Dan grabbed me around the middle.

"Stop it!" I yelled, and he forced me around to look at him by grabbing my arms with his hands and holding me roughly,

"Suze it was a mistake. Please understand!" he said, almost desperate.

"Get away from me!" I yelled trying to get away from his grasp.

"Suze, I was being an idiot. Can't you give a second chance? You're being a little dramactic." he said. I felt tears in my eyes again; I just wanted to get away.

"Fuck yourself." I said angrily kicking him but he didn't even bulge.

"You know that's not what you want." Dan said pulling me in close. I felt myself crying all over again. OF COURSE that's not what I wanted. I wanted too many different things… my nerves were going crazy, wanting to just get away and run.

But then, Danny suddenly kissed me and that's when my world shattered. I pushed away hard but he managed to hold on. I wanted to KILL him, how DARE he.

"STOP!" I yelled into his lips and shoved him, he fell back onto the table and I glared. He got up but I punched him hard in the jaw causing him to fall back again.

"Don't touch me." I hissed but he got up and grabbed my arms.

He brought me close again so he could talk loudly into my ear, "Don't think you can get away with that Susie."

"Is there a problem here?" Paul's voice rang out, cutting off Daniel. I looked at him, only fifteen feet away; he looked worried and curious. I tried to pull away from Danny but he held me close.

"Nothing." Danny said in an even tone.

"I heard yelling." Paul said, his mouth turned into a frown.

"Then you heard wrong." Danny said gritting his teeth. I struggled to get away but his grip got tighter, hurting me.

"Ouch." I said, tears sprung to my eyes.

"You're fine." Danny whispered harshly.

"What's going on?" Paul asked, stepping closer.

"Oh, wouldn't YOU like to know." Danny sneered. Paul glared,

"Let go of Suze, she is _clearly_ uncomfortable." Bingo.

"Mind your own business Paul." Danny spat, glaring at Paul with hate.

"Let go of me!" I said pushing hard, but he definitely wasn't letting go anytime soon.

"I said let go of her!" Paul ordered, giving me shivers down my spine.

"Fuck off!" Danny growled at Paul. I managed to get one hand free and slap Danny HARD across she face.

"Let me GO!" I said viciously.

"What are you guys a tag-team now?" Danny asked in annoyance. "What were you doing **him** behind my back or something?" I was in pure SHOCK that he would say that. HYPOCRITE MUCH?

"What the HELL is wrong with you?" I asked, pulling my arm away. " WE ARE DONE. GET OVER IT. NOW LET ME GO!" I roared, throwing a punch of pure rage. But he caught it easily; I never had control of my rage.

"That was dumb Suze." Dan said glaring at me, twisting my wrist in a way that really hurt.

"No, THAT was." Paul said before punching Danny in the face. That's when chaos struck, and I was in the middle of all of it.


	9. Move Along

Chapter 9 – Move Along

o0o

It was all a blur really. I definitely remember a crash, falling down, panicking and blood. Paul and Danny were really going at it; the blood was mostly from Danny's nose. The panic set in, over the fact that these two guys were both fighting and could get seriously injured, they were both in a blind rage of stupidity and male pride.

I tried turning around and walking away for help but I couldn't keep my eyes off them and ended up falling back and crashing into one of the nearby tables. APPARENTLY they didn't care, too far into the fight. What is it with boys and fighting? Soon I had to get up off the floor (good job) and think.

I couldn't just go get Mrs. Hackteur or hotel management… I mean, we could totally be fired. We have already caused enough trouble. Though Danny totally deserved this… fighting isn't always the answer for everything! Sure, coming from me I bet that sounded sincere. Talking to them won't work… I had to do something myself though, and quick.

Or… Jesse! Perfect solution.

'Jesse, I need you…' I thought panicked. Nothing happened. I had to get control of my emotions, its hard enough hearing my spiritual thoughts to him, let alone it was wavering in and out from fear and anger. 'Jesse, please…' I thought hurriedly. I waited a bit but he didn't show up. God, what was he _doing_? Having a trip to the shadowland bathroom or something?

**Crash.**

I looked over and a desk had fallen over and Danny and Paul had fallen backwards over it.

"Get the hell off of me!" Danny growled, shoving Paul backwards.

"You're an asshole Danny!" Paul spat blood from his mouth on the ground. Er… ew.

"Just thinking the same of you, actually." Danny said, they were circling, like two dogs in a fight – ready to strike.

"Stop fighting!" I said furiously, finally finding a time to talk.

"Suze." Danny said, finally they both noticed I was still there. "I…" he started and swallowed, looking embarrassed and tired, "Look if you will just let me explain." He said.

"Excuse me? Get it in your head, we are through." I said slowly. Paul gave a snort of amusement.

"It's not completely what it seems!" Dan said looking hopeless; he stepped in my direction but stopped because Paul was standing in the way. He glared at Paul but seemed not to want to go any further,

"Listen, Suze, you have to understand I mean… you _know_ me. You know, I-" I cut him off,

"No Danny… the sad thing is I _don't_ know you. I was wrong." I said, getting a hold of my strength. Danny stepped closer but Paul clenched his fists,

"Any closer buddy…" he said dangerously low. Danny glared at him,

"Why are you even here _Paul_?" Danny said Paul's name like it was something that disgusted him. "You have nothing to do with this, you're not involved!"

"The second you hurt Suze I was." Paul said, his cold blue eyes glaring at Danny, "You hurt my friends, I hurt you." Danny's own hazel eyes flashed with anger.

"What the fuck?" Danny said with a dubious expression. "Since when were you two **friends**? From what I heard, you and Suze didn't exactly have a very fairy tale past." Dan said with a smirk, Paul's eyes widened but he looked more angry then anything else. "Actually come to think of it, Suze never was friends with you, yeah, she pretty much _hated_ you." Paul lunged at Danny again,

"Shut up!" he yelled. What was I supposed to do? I guess as a shifter I could shift one of them away but their unconscious body would be left for the other to do harm to, it was way too risky.

I breathed in deep, getting control, 'Jesse!' I said clearly and loud in my head. He appeared in a flash.

"Nombre de dios…" he muttered looking at the chaos before him.

"I know…" I said sighing, "Look long story short, Danny is an ass and Paul is well… trying to kick his ass." I said, "We need to stop them."

"Soy tan cansado de estos idiotas." Jesse muttered. "Of course Susannah, but I do not think anything can stop their egos." He said before appearing in between Paul and Danny who both looked extremely surprised and stopped for a moment. I could feel a strong amount of anger come from Jesse - Paul and Danny were both flung backwards from not of his touch but his ghostly power.

"What the?" Paul said before hitting the ground. Both of them got up quickly looking from Jesse to me.

"I told you to stop!" I told them, "Stop fighting when things go wrong!" I said on the verge of crying - tonight had gone horribly wrong, my emotions were soaring.

"I was just trying to help you…" Paul said looking slightly shameful.

"I don't need help." I said angrily, "And fighting doesn't solve anything. Nothing even needs to be solved!" I said turning to Dan, "Daniel we are **over**, now get over it." I said bitterly, my eyes swimming with tears now. Jesse looked very concerned, but instead I turned around and walked out – it was all a little too much.

o0o

I laid on my bed quietly, and forced myself not to cry. Aimee was asleep and surprisingly Shannon was there too, asleep on her bed. It had only been like, _a couple weeks_ and I _already_ wanted to go home. I had been attacked in the streets, almost drowned, pretty much cheated on, and worst of all Paul was there to see it all happen. I didn't even know if we were friends. It was almost impossible for us to be…

Soon I had fallen asleep and didn't wake up till late in the morning. I felt horrible. Groggy and I had a huge headache. No one was inside the room, but there was a note left on my bedside table from Aimee,

_Suze – Mrs. Hackteur said that we do not have a free day until we talk to the ghost again. You seemed to not wake up and Shannon suggested we leave without you – not that I wanted to but you seem to be really tired, so I'm going to tell Father Dominic and Mrs. Hackteur you are sick. Well, you may be – anyways when you come down keep in mind we are tracking down Ella! I hope you come soon, Aimee_

Well, that was nice of her – saved my neck with Mrs. Hackteur. Honestly it seems like everyone is doing everything around here for me – where was my old self who kicked butt? Now it's like everyone else is doing _that_ too for me. Sigh. A blue shimmer told me Jesse was arriving – and he did.

"Ah, buenos dias Susannah!" he said, with a smile. "I have been checking in on you every so often but you have been asleep each time." He said, running his hand through his crisp, black hair. A weary look crossed his handsome face, "What happened last night _querida_? Why were Daniel and Slater, fighting?" My mind was forced to think about last night. Groan.

"Uh, well. See…" I sighed, "I caught Dan with another girl, Jesse." I said frowning. "But I mean, no big deal… it wasn't like I really _felt _anything for the guy… I mean… I'm mad but…" I said trying to make light of the situation. "Not like we were really officially together?" I half asked.

"Yo lo matare! Por que haria tal cosa?" Jesse said, his scar turning white.

See, I almost wish it was one of those cheap Mary-Kate and Ashley films where they go, 'Subtitles please!' and you understand what someone is saying. …Almost.

"Um, okay Jesse. But look, Paul happened to be there and that's why they got in a fight. So, it's okay - _please_ don't do anything irrational. Daniel is a complete idiot, I know. But there isn't anything we can do right now, alright?" Jesse looked unconvinced.

"He still needs to be punished _querida_." He said darkly. "How could someone do that to you?" he said holding my hands.

"Um, like he did…" I said.

"He is un bastardo Susannah, I do not see why _anyone_ would ever want to toss away your love?" My stomache did flip flops at his words and close proximity.

"Thanks." I said warmly. "Look, what he did was wrong but I need to figure this out myself. Daniel obviously has intimacy problems." I said thinking of what he said last night. "But that is _no_ excuse. So… I'm okay. I put my trust with him so soon, I guess I learned huh?" I said getting the prickly feeling like I was going to cry. Jesse hugged me and it felt good, I was so glad he was here for me.

Suddenly the door opened and Shannon walked in. Clad in denim skirt and low cut tee – her shiny blonde hair perfectly tussled along her shoulders; she gave an amused expression when she saw Jesse and me – hugging. Jesse let go, looking embarrassed,

"Yes?" I asked in an annoyed tone.

"I heard about you and Danny breaking up." She said casually, not a hint of sympathy. I looked a bit shocked, "News travels fast."

"We were never really together..." I mumbled.

"Okay." She said admiring her manicure. "Anyways Aimee said to come and get you." She said in monotone. "Oh and you too." She said with a sudden smile towards Jesse. Jesse looked amused and coughed,

"Uh, sure." He said. I rolled my eyes, Shannon's little crush was so obvious. But I couldn't really blame her, every girl was sort of infatuated with Jesse. Jesse squeezed my hand and I nodded, he knew he should go. I rolled out of bed,

"I'll be down in ten." I said.

"Only ten minutes. Geez Suze, you sure don't take much time on yourself." Shannon said with a fake smile.

"Well some of us only need a little while to get ready, others obviously need hours." I said breezily. She cut me a glare and stomped out. Oh yeah, old Suze is slowly coming back.

o0o

I came down to the lobby a little over fifteen minutes later – dressed in dark jeans and a form fitting green tee to match my eyes. My tan had deepend nicely now that it was end of summer, and my hair seemed very long, dark with nice natural texture. The salty air does wonders for hair, it looked cute all on its own. I looked around for some of my coworkers. Luckily I ran into Nate, quite literally.

"Ouch!" I said as he bumped into me and stepped on me with his big shoes – by the way I was only wearing flip flops – yeah, ouch. Nate brushed back his shaggy blonde hair with his hand, with a lopsided grin,

"Aw, sorry Suze!" he said giving me a small hug, "I'm pretty clumsy." Naww – Nate is such a cutie, how can I get snappy?

"It's okay, me too. Sort of known for it." I said, "Where are you off too in such a rush?" He was wearing long white and blue board shorts with a raggy white t-shirt, just his style. "Good waves or something?" I guessed. He laughed,

"No, ghostly matters! Apparently Ella has been spotted by that buffet restaurant." He said, "Come on, I'm glad your feeling better, we really need you!" He said grabbing my hand and moving along. We got there shortly but Ella was nowhere to be found.

"You just missed her, guys." Marcus said shoving his glasses up his nose, "Glad to see you're feeling better Suze." He added smiling. I messed up his hair with my hand in a friendly gesture,

"Yeah, yeah sure." I said with a laugh.

"We are!" Aimee said, nearby. She looked happy.

"Well I guess we better be splitting up and looking again…" I said sighing but with a small smile. "Where is everyone else?"

"To my knowledge Father Dominic and Mrs. Hackteur are in the west wing of the hotel, in the study trying to plot out our next destination after we are finished here at the hotel." Marcus said, "Um, Hannah should be somewhere nearby and I'm not so sure about the rest…" he said thinking hard.

"Well, I trust your knowledge so, let's go search around and if we find someone else along the way then… good." I said and that was our lame plan for the moment.

o0o

Good? Not good. Oh, when I said finding someone along the way was _good_ then I didn't know who I would meet. You probably guessed it right? No not Shannon and no not even Paul. Danny? Right.

I literally bumped into him when turning the corner heading towards the East wing of the massive hotel.

"Oh, sorry." I said looking down, "I wasn't looking where I was goi-" but I stopped, looking up at Danny's face. …Danny's PLAYA BOY face. I ended up trying to move past him but he grabbed my arm in which I immediately pulled away. "What?" I demanded looking fierce. I brushed some of my hair from my face, and glared.

"Even when you are mad you look gorgeous Simon." He said with a hint of a smile on his lips. I was momentarily shocked,

"Do you even have anything to say or is your harassment just it?" I said bored, "Honestly can you just let go? You are a player, I get it. I got played, whatever. I'd almost be honored that you choose me over all the other girls Danny!" I said oozing with sarcasm. "But I'm not. So you _really_ need to get over the fact that yeah, it's _your_ fault you lost me. And yeah, I pretty much hate you right now." I said with a sigh.

"Suze… you are beautiful, I mean that's obvious." I gave a noise of disgust, I mean what the hell? He was _such_ a perv, how did I not clue into this earlier? He continued, "But that's only what's obvious. What people wouldn't know from first glance is that you are really amazing too. I mean… you are tough, boy, you can hold your own. And you're smart and funny and incredibly sweet. Do you know how hard it is to find someone like that? All around amazing." He said looking genuine, his accent making my heart beat a little faster.

Oh. _Oh_. That's why I had fallen for him, other then _his_ obvious appeals; he did know how to talk.

But I still didn't really know what to say, I mean, I hated him - I _hated_ him for what he did.

I wanted to yell at him, to even hit him or something but it was like my heart was melting all over again. Why was I so weak? He was a smooth talker, nothing more. His words would just end up spinning me in a web until it bites – and I'm left hurt.

Why was it _so_ hard to tell him off?

… …"_Stop thinking about him already!" Ceecee told me throwing a pillow at me teasingly. I shook my head out of the trance I was in. Ceecee and I were clad in pajamas, she was sleeping over at my house. We had all the standard sleepover junk, meaning junk food and cheesy movies – I had on pink boxer shorts and a big 'sleeping' t-shirt. Ceecee had long silk, purple pjs. Her white-blonde hair was down and she had a mischievous grin on her face. "When **am** I going to meet this mysterious Jesse?" she asked with grin. _

"_Hmmm?" I asked casually, because  
a) Never. She can't see ghosts, only she doesn't know he is one.  
b) I wasn't thinking about Jesse (for once) so I was generally confused._

_She sighed an exaggerated sigh and flopped down beside me,_

"_Suuuuze." She said in a fake whiney tone. "Who is this guyyyyy?" she whined._

"_Urgh – stop that, you sound like Kelly." I said with a small laugh._

"_I know!" Ceecee said with a winning grin, "I've perfected the Kelly whine, aka her normal voice." I laughed. "Oh Paulie, I broke a naaaail!" Ceecee wailed. _

"_Cee, stop!" I said laughing, hitting her with a pillow._

"_Paulie come rescue me! Paulie this, Paulie that." __Ceecee said rolling her eyes. "Man, do you remember what she was like when he was around?" Ceecee asked. She ranted on for awhile but I didn't answer her. It had been almost a year since he had left. I looked out my open window to the night sky; a full moon was glowing over the ocean. I moved over and sat on the window seat like I had so many times before now – oblivious of my background surroundings._

_Almost a year._

_Why is it so hard for me to let go? 'Because you strive for love.' I thought. 'Because he was real.'_

_The wind blew and my hair gently came across my face; it was a nice breeze. Why had I been sitting here so many nights wondering these things – it wasn't like I loved him. I mean, I always thought that long ago on that winter formal night I had. A tiny piece of my heart had. But did it still? Did I **miss **him? What was wrong with me? My thoughts as per usual were getting out of control. But I was only seventeen – maybe I wanted a boyfriend other people could **see.**_

_No._

_Paul wanted me to think like this, which was always his plan – to make me believe that Jesse wasn't right for me. But I knew he was in my heart. That was always Paul's plan. _

_Was it part of his plan to haunt me like this even now, months after he left us all to go back to _ _Seattle__? Why was I so lonely, even now? God… I hate him, just **hate** him, he wanted to ruin me, I have to be strong, I-_

"_Uh, HELLO? Suze!" Ceecee said in a clearly irritated tone._

"_Huh?" I said getting out of my thoughts once more. _

"_You weren't even listening to me were you?" Ceecee said in a business like tone. _

"_Sorry Cee… there is a lot on my mind…" I said shrugging sheepishly._

"_Well Suze, then its time for you to forget everything and let's watch a movie! You can pick." She said holding up our two totally cheesy but of course you-just-can't-help-but-want-to-watch films. "Princess Diaries or A Cinderella Story?" she asked, holding up the DVDs. I smiled, hmmm, which to choose? We decided to watch both, as I suggested, seeing as how they both get their princes in the end… …_

"Danny, **_please_**." I said softly. I couldn't take it… I couldn't take anymore of these up and down relationships, the emotions were too dramatic – it was too hard to even think. Dan immediately saw it. My weakness.

He knew my heart was always getting in the way, always leading me to trouble. I would give in to my heart in a beat, just like I had all those times in the past with Jesse and Paul. It truely was my weakness, and I tried hard not to show it. But he knew. A slow grin appeared on his face, though I was now looking down at the floor.

"Hey, Suze." I heard Paul's voice call out. He walked up to me and Daniel looking suspicious, "What are you doing?" he asked.

"Nothing." I muttered, looking up and glaring at Danny. "Just about to tell him to **_please_** go away. But I think he gets it." Paul was glaring at him too but instead Danny just had a cocky grin on his face,

"Right. Later Suze… Slater." He said nodding, and then walked off.

"I don't like that grin, Suze." Paul said. Either did I.

o0o

Since we were both in the East wing we decided to check it out together for Ella.

"Why are you even talking to him?" Paul asked.

"Um, I'm not." I said defensively. I definitely didn't _want_ any contact with Dan anymore.

"Right." Paul said sarcastically. Oh yeah, he _did_ see us.

"We bumped into each other… I don't know." I sighed, "What does it matter to you anyways?" Paul stopped walking and I stopped to face him,

"It does matter because what he did was _really_ stupid. And I don't know…" Paul said drifting off.

"I know." I agreed. "But you didn't have to fight him last night… for me." I said standing looking into his eyes awkwardly.

"Well see, I think I've helped you a few time this trip." Paul said with a grin, "And don't tell me I'm wrong." I rolled my eyes in a playful way. "But that's the thing; see I want to be friends with you now Suze. I mean, two and a half years ago… well _that_ didn't work out. So… this will." I smiled, "Hopefully." He added. I play-punched him in the arm,

"Maybe." I said. He laughed,

"Better than nothing, eh?" he said in a casual tone. "But that's why I don't really want you talking to Danny… it's nothing but bad news. I'm sort of protective of you now, kiddo." He said scuffing his hand through my hair like I did to Marcus earlier.

… _What.. the.. fuck? _Kiddo? I was about to most possibly roll my eyes and give a snappy comment but Marcus and Hannah came coming from the opposite direction.

"Hey guys, seen anything?" Paul drawled lazily.

"Nope." Hannah answered and gave me a big hug I was unprepared for. I laughed,

"Hello!" I said.

"Good to see you, it's been like, giggle, two days it seems!" she said flipping her pretty red hair over her shoulder.

"Yeah." I agreed and gave a warm smile. The four of us walked around for a bit checking out some of the rooms until I got to one and opened it up to find a large room with pipes and a boiler. It was one of the water mains for the hotel.

"Hey, guys check this out." I said. "You'd think this would be locked, right?" I said and they followed me in.

"Yes, one would suspect a room such like this would be locked so the hotel guests could not achieve access…" Marcus said. We heard a tiny laugh. Huh.

"Show yourself." Paul said rolling his eyes. Ella appeared floating in midair, laying as if she was on an invisible couch, laughing.

"He sounds like a tiny robot." She said pointing at Marcus who blushed. She crackled a laugh, her dark bluish black hair floating. She landed on the ground and glared at us with a smile on her lips. "What do you want?" she demanded.

"Same old, same old." Paul said.

"We need you to move on." Hannah said trying to help.

"Why don't _you_ move on?" Ella spat back. Ouch, Hannah looked hurt.

"We don't want to hurt you… again." I said, "Well, we do, but I mean we can't so-" Paul coughed to cut off my rambling. I cut him a swift glare then turned back to Ella,

"But why don't you be a good little girl and go away, okay?" I said fake sweet.

"NO!" Ella screamed, sending us all flying backwards. She was mad, her power was rising and some pipes were rattling. Marcus ripped his walkie-talkie he had on his jeans and talked into it –

"We have found the ghost, I repeat: We have found the ghost! In the East wing, room, um, 304 - I think – the water pipe room!" he said hurriedly. It was _so_ cute. This seemed to make Ella even madder and a pipe burst, spraying water everywhere. "WE NEED BACK UP!" Marcus yelled into the walkie-talkie and a few of the MED members answered back on their walkie-talkies that they carried.

"What do we do right now?" Hannah asked. Ella broke another pipe. I was getting wet now and so were Paul and poor Marcus. Hannah was standing right beside the pipe but she couldn't get wet,

"Uh, try to figure out something to fix the pipe temporarily!" I said. Paul and I both caught glances and decided not to fight her – it was too risky. We had to keep her here so everyone else would be able to come. We yelled at her, that was our _brilliant_ plan.

Though she did get mad and break a few more pipes, it kept her here. Soon Nate and Danny ran into the room, and Father Dom and Mrs. Hackteur were right behind them. They all stood, ankle deep in water watching Ella.

Aimee ran in the room and screamed, unaware that there was water in here so it shocked her. Shannon came in then slowly backed out so she was half out the door and half in – she didn't want to get _wet_. Then Jesse materialized,

"Ah, finally we are all here with the ghost." He said giving me a small smile.

"Yeah, to take her down." I said, wiping my wet hair off my face.

"Dear child, calm down." Father Dom was saying to Ella, and she actually was.

"Are you a priest?" she asked. He nodded and she stopped playing water tricks. This was only after;

a) Mrs. Hackteur glared her bitchiest glare ever.

b) Nate, Daniel, Paul, Jesse and myself all tried to keep her here whilst

c) Marcus, Aimee and Hannah were figuring out how to stop the pipes. And Shannon yelled _encouragement_ to Paul and a few others from the door.

Soon Ella was quiet and talking to Father Dom with tears in her eyes. Mrs. Hackteur was ordering people to get towels to clean up the mess – and Nate was coming in with a mop. Everyone was mopping up the water and the pipes had stopped now, even Shannon was toweling the floor off a little. I moved nearer to Father Dom and Ella listening in their conversation, whilst pretending to mop.

"So you see, _that's_ why I couldn't move on." Ella was explaining, I could see she really was a more innocent, pretty sixteen year old now that she stopped being _total fucking psycho_. "I couldn't just leave… my parents were devastated when I died. All I had left was this hotel… Everyone was forgetting about me. I wanted to at least make the newspapers! My death was so under the rug! I followed my parents around for a while. It was pretty miserable. They moved on with their lives eventually." She said, on the verge of tears again.

"Aren't you happy they did?" Father Dom asked soothingly.

"I guess. I mean, yes, but I was still here! Still here to watch them move on and I couldn't! They live in friggen _Ohio_ now. So boring. So I came back to the hotel. Wanted to make a little noise, rattle a few chains. Wanted to be heard and seen and not be forgotten." She said wistfully.

"I understand dear child, but you must allow the past to be the past. And move on for a better future." Past to be the past? I wish.

"I guess so." Ella said fidgeting with her shirt. "But… will they be okay? My parents…" she whispered.

"I suspect so. If they were able to move on for a better future then you can too. Do not worry Ella, you won't be forgotten… but there is no point living in the past memories when you can make new ones." I stood still, staring at Father D. His words were hitting me deep. Ella noticed me watching,

"Uh, sorry for, you know, stuff." She said to me. I gave her a sly smile,

"Same." I said. She looked around at all of us,

"Wow." She said, "You guys sure work as a team."

"A team to help those who need it." Father D said. Ella smiled; she was slowly glittering, like when a ghost would dematerialize. She looked over to Paul; I realized everyone was now watching.

"Sorry as well." She added and he smiled,

"No prob. It was fun." He said and Shannon elbowed him. Ella was slowly fading out and soon with a giggle – she was gone. We all stood still, watching the now empty space. I felt a hand hold mine, and looked to see the all too familiar face of Jesse de Silva. We both looked at each other warmly – it had been a long couple of weeks but it was worth it to see the job done.

Nate clapped slowly and I burst out laughing. Everyone else joined in. Even Mrs. Hackteur was smiling then looked sharp but amused,

"Alright, well have a good rest of the afternoon and night to ourselves because we are leaving tomorrow morning!" she said briskly.

"Where to captain?" Nate asked and we all tried to hide our laughter. Mrs. Hackteur gave a deadly stare. "Er – I mean, where to Miss?"

"A town called Dullsdrin." She said with a small smile, "So be ready at 8:00 in the morning, sharp." She said before walking about the door. Father Dom came up to me as we were all putting away the cleaning materials,

"Good work Susannah." He said with a wink, "I think you're getting the hand of this ghostly business without exorcisms hmm?"

"What?" I said acting scandalized. "That was only those few times, I swear!" I said laughing. He chuckled and walked off – a smile was on my face and I didn't even know why, it just felt like a good moment right now. A good memory.

"Who wants to play the last round of cards at this hotel, tonight?" Nate asked, and we all looked up – smiles on everyone's faces.

o0o

I packed up all my clothes and things and had it ready to leave for the next morning. I took a look outside my room's window and opened the sliding screen to step out onto the balcony. The sun was setting into the ocean and the salty breeze was nice and warm – it was all so beautiful.

The sun was setting, we had completed our first job as a team and right now; everything was alright.

A smile was brought to my lips; the wind was rustling my hair as I sighed contently. I was excited. Here was a team of people, people like me, I was finally not an outsider. We were travelling and doing good at the same time. Though some of the company, was... less than desirable, I was excited. I don't know if it was just the surroundings or the feel of the moment, but not knowing what's ahead? That was what made me the most excited; I was ready.

Dullsdrin here I come...


	10. Dullsdrin

o0o

Chapter 10: Dullsdrin

Dullsdrin. That's where we were headed next. Just the name itself made me hate it already.

We were all packed up and sitting on the bus journeying to the next town. We were travelling to northern Oregon, I think. I wasn't paying too close of attention when Mrs. Hackteur had explained it all to us this morning, as I am not much of a morning person.

All I know was that it was going to take around twelve hours to get there. I was hoping I could just sleep most of it.

Travelling out of California and into another place entirely was interesting enough. The swaying palm trees and green grass slowly turned to snow peaked mountain ranges, and trees of red and gold. I knew we were moving from the warm, warm sunshine to the colder temperatures and higher elevations.

It seemed appropriately fitting as my summer turned into fall. We were in September now, and leaving the Grand Matre Hotel behind. We had let one ghost onto the 'other side' and were on to the next.

In the beginning I had no idea what was ahead of me, what working with MED was going to be like. After a few weeks, I still felt like I had no idea what was ahead of me.

It was like I was on a rollercoaster, I had quite a few ups and quite a few downs so far. My heart hurt and I felt confused about how I felt about most of the people I was with but, I was happy I had decided to do this.

If only a certain someone would have stayed behind in California, I thought as I brought my attention back to the bus we were on. I flicked my eyes towards Danny who was sitting by himself near the front of the bus, his eyes closed, sleeping peacefully. I wanted to punch him in his handsome sleeping face.

Only Paul and I really knew what had happened between Danny and I. Jesse knew there was a fall out with Danny, but he didn't know the whole story. He had no idea that we had slept together, and no idea how we had felt. I was dismissive anytime he wanted to talk about it.

I really valued Jesse's opinion and I didn't want to see his face fall when he hears that I had slept with Danny.

When I was with Jesse, it was special, it had been momentous. Danny and I had been a flight of lust and… booze? It hurt to think about, but admittedly I had had feelings for Danny. He was a charmer, for sure, but I had felt safe with him.

Unlike Paul. Years ago when Paul and I had been… well we hadn't really been anything, but that was the point wasn't it? I hadn't trusted him, and I certainly never felt safe with him. I still didn't. He was unpredictable, and a force to reckon with.

I couldn't really say he was my friend, I knew that was what he wanted, but I couldn't really feel that yet. The rest of the gang? Sure. Well, not Shannon, she was sort of a bitch.

I looked over at Paul and Shannon sitting together at the back of the bus. Shannon's head rested on Paul shoulder, her blonde hair across her pretty face. Paul's head was lent to the other side, resting on the window, looking slightly troubled in his sleep.

Maybe he was having a nightmare. Ha. Maybe he'll pee his pants. What is wrong with me…

Hannah was sitting with Aimee, happily chatting into her ear earlier as Aimee sat patiently listening to it all, not really getting a word in. Now Aimee was fast asleep, her shoulder length brown hair in a loose braid at her side. Hannah had disappeared to wherever ghosts hangout at.

Maybe to where she had died? I still didn't know. I could easily imagine eighteen year old Hannah, fierce red hair and gorgeous, walking down the halls of the Mission, everyone would have loved her. It was sad.

Nate and Marcus had sat together, and had watched a couple movies on Marcus's laptop for the first few hours until both fell asleep.

Even Father Dominic and Mrs. Hackteur were napping away, at the front of the bus. Some might find it weird that I was spending the next few months with my principle out of school (Dopey had made that point several times in the days leading up to my departure) but he really was like an old friend now.

All was eerily quiet.

I looked beside me and Jesse was staring out the window, looking at the changing scenery. He had stayed relatively close to me since everything that had happened with Danny and the men in the alleyway. I was grateful.

His handsome face was taking in the outside world, he looked relaxed. His crisp black hair was perfect (always), and his strong, large hands were resting on the seat. I inched my hand under his.

He looked towards me with a smile and held onto my hand.

"You excited for the next mission?" He asked me, speaking in a low voice so not to wake everyone on the bus.

"In Dullsdrin? Not really." I said dryly.

He laughed a good natured laugh, I had missed his laughs. I had spent so much of my time here stuck to the hip with Danny, I had forgotten about everyone else. Everyone else that mattered.

"Are you enjoying this Jesse? Do you like being here? Or are you only here to make sure I'm okay… I don't want to force you to do this." I said, biting my lower lip.

"I do take pleasure in being here _querida_. Even though I am making sure you do not get hurt." He chuckled. "But I cannot imagine living in your bedroom as you run off on this adventure. I would be unimaginably bored."

"Bored to death eh? Heh heh." I joked. He rolled his eyes good naturedly.

"Yes _querida_." He said . "The thought of you at school… going off to some university. It will happen, yes. But I am not sure I could go with you. So this seems like the best alternative."

"Of course you would go with me!" I exclaimed, then lowered my tone.

"I cannot just keep following you wherever you go Susannah…" He said looking a little pained.

"Why?" I asked childishly. "You're my best friend Jesse, I need you."

"I do not want to make any decisions about this right now. I think we should save this conversation for another time." He said uneasily.

"Fiiiine." I sighed dramatically. "But you're okay being here?"

"Of course." he said, relaxing.

"Even with Paul?" I asked quickly.

"Yes, even with Slater. Though my opinion of him has not really changed." He said a little darkly.

"I know. Mine either." I agreed. "But I know it must be hard…" I said.

"It will all be okay." He answered. I shook my head, thinking back…

_... ... I had returned home late, two in the morning late. Ceecee had been the designated driver, and she dropped me off right at my house. __I stumbled out of the car, laughing as I did so. Adam, got out to get into the front seat, drunkenly laughing at me._

"_Nice Suze, reflexes like a cat!" he said laughing._

"_Shut up McTavish!" I yelled good naturedly._

"_Get in the car Adam." Ceecee said in an annoyed tone. I get it, driving home two drunk people at two in the morning was a pain in the ass. We were grateful she had been sober throughout the whole party, at Debbie's beach house, as it were. Even though it was January, it was still warm enough to have beach parties at night. Though I wouldn't recommend swimming._

"_I'm coming, I'm coming…" Adam said and hopped into the front passenger seat. Ceecee put his seatbelt on for him. _

"_You going to make it inside okay Simon, or do I need to tuck you into bed?" Ceecee asked, half joking._

"_I'll tuck her in!" Adam yelled._

"_I'll be fine Cee!" I said, drunkenly waving goodbye to her. _

_I marched to the front of the house. Locked. Fucking Brad. I told Dopey to leave it unlocked before we left to the party tonight, so I could sneak back in without my mom and Andy hearing me._

_Dopey had stayed at Debbie's house (ew). Of course he locked it, he loved torturing me. Well I couldn't very well ring the door bell and get grounded for life. So I went to the tall tree by my window, and started to climb. _

_Now I know I'm a mediator, shifter, and I'm quite good at climbing trees. Over the years I've climbed so many trees and fences that I could do it with my eyes closed. But drunk? It was hard. _

_It took me a long time to get to the top. I was reaching towards my open window, missing it, and grasping the air with my hands._

_Just a little further… aaand I was falling._

_I guess I had missed the window entirely in a stupid drunken haze, and I was now going to break my face on the ground._

_To my amazement, I didn't hit the ground but landed safely in someone's arms. Jesse. _

"_Jesse!" I said as he caught me and we both crumbled to the ground from the force. I was fine, Jesse on the other hand looked like he had broken his arm. But being a ghost, it was already quickly healing._

"_Oh ma god, Imma so sorry…" I slurred at him. He glared at me,_

"_Why are you being stupid?" He asked, using a word I taught him, unfortunately. _

"_Whaaaat?" I said, probably yelling, as drunk people have no sense of how loud they are actually being._

"_Climbing a tree in the darkness? And being so intoxicated doing so?" He said plainly. "That is stupid. If I had not seen you at the last second, you would have fallen and truly gotten hurt." He flexed his now healed arm, grunting as he did so._

"_Sorrrrry." I said, pouting my puffy lips and blinking my lashes at him._

"_Do not use your feminine charms on me Susannah." He said, "I am still angry with you."_

"_Yes it was stupid! I'm a horrible person!" I sighed dramatically._

"_No you are not querida." He said, "But foolish tonight indeed." _

"_I want to go to bed Jesse." I said, trying to patiently get my words out right. Jesse rolled his eyes,_

"_Fine. We can talk about this in the morning." He answered._

"_Pick me up and FLY to my window!" I said, spinning in circles._

"_Please stop." He said, holding me still. "That is not how it works, you know I cannot." He said, guiding me to the front door. He dematerialized and unlocked the door, letting me inside. _

_He helped me stumble up the stairs, catching me when I slipped, _

"_SHHHH!" I hushed super loudly. Jesse rolled his eyes at me and helped me to my room as I had at first tried to barge into Doc's room, thinking it was mine._

_I closed my bedroom door and hugged Jesse hard,_

"_Thank you!" I said and he laughed slightly, the first smile I saw him crack all night._

"_Alright querida. Now you should go to bed and sleep the alcohol off." He said disapprovingly. "You should not have drank so much of it."_

"_Oh I know, I try not to at these things but you know." I said._

"_Sure." Jesse said, being patient with me._

"_But I missed you." I said, putting my lips onto his. I was feeling suddenly horny from the alcohol._

"_I of course missed you, I always worry when you go to these things." He said, and I felt bad._

"_I know." I murmured, "But I can make it up to you…" I said, kissing his neck, my hand feeling his hard abs underneath his shirt._

"_Querida, no." He coughed, looking a little torn. "Not now, whilst you are intoxicated." He said , trying not to make me feel bad._

"_It's okay Jesse." I soothed, kissing his jaw. _

"_No, it is not." He said, pushing me back. I grabbed his shirt,_

"_Paul come on!" I said a bit angrily. Why was he pushing me away! _

_Jesse became silent, looking at me, his eyes wide. Had I just called him Paul? Oh dear god._

"_N-no." I slurred. "I meant Jesse." I said, hating myself for the slip up._

"_I think you should go to bed." He said angrily._

"_I didn't meant it!" I said throwing my hands up in the air. "Jesus Jesse, come on, you know I didn't meant to say that. I'm drunk!"_

"_Yes I have noticed." He said dryly. _

"_That's obviously a horrible slip up as you are not a psychopath douche bag like Paul but come on!" I just wanted him to understand. I hadn't meant to call him Paul. _

_But why had I? He had been gone for almost two years. I could see that Jesse was thinking the same thing._

"_Fine." I huffed, getting into bed, not bothering to change my clothes. "Be that way." I was being horribly immature, I knew, but this was just one of the many cracks now forming into our relationship. _

_Jesse dematerialized, not wanting to stick around for the rest of the night. I squeezed my eyes shut in anger. What was happening to us?... ...  
_

We had failed at being together. I thought to myself, looking at Jesse's hand in mine, on the bus. We had had two years of blissfulness together and then we had failed. I squeezed his hand harder.

o0o

We had now entered the town of Dullsdrin. Or so the sign had said. I had no idea where the fuck we were. In the middle of nowhere, by the looks of it. Well it was beautiful in its own way. Mountains looming in the background with gorgeous fall trees, their leaves falling to the ground.

The town was quaint. It was old, very old looking. Hundreds of years old looking. Stone buildings with pointy spheres on top, and plenty of old churches. There didn't look like much to do, it was a small place. No shopping malls, one little broken down movie theatre and no fast food places.

It definitely wasn't California. Maybe this would be a nice break from that? Probably not, but here's hoping.

The bus stopped in front of an old house, mansion more like it. It was tall and dark and slightly weathered but beautiful. I gazed at it out the window in awe and many others aboard the bus did the same.

Mrs. Hackteur stood up and we brought our attention to her.

"This is our next stop. The Willow's estate. From what we know, this house has been passed down from family to family in the Willow's bloodline. Until the last owners, all are now dead."

A shudder involuntarily went up my spine.

"Realtors have tried to sell the place for a while but… accidents keep happening. We all know what that means." She said.

We all gave a small laugh.

"One of the realtors happens to be a mediator herself and realized instantly what had been going on. But she says, the task is too much for herself and she has hired us to do the job. We will meet with her shortly for more information on our spectral visitors."

We all started to get off the bus. A haunted mansion? Wow, really? So original. But as I got off the bus, the cold air around me, chilled me. The mansion standing before me looking quite dark indeed.

A middle aged lady came down the steps from the mansion's door and met us at the sidewalk.

"Nice to finally meet you all. If you come along, we can have a chat." She said, smiling sweetly. She led us to a garden in the backyard. I can believe it was once gorgeous with roses of every color, but now is was full of brown weeds and death.

We all sat at different tables and chairs that had probably once been there as a peaceful garden area, but was now abandoned.

"Now everyone, I would like you to listen to Mrs. Norwell here. She knows the most about these ghostly encounters." Father Dominic said, before taking a seat.

Marcus instantly got a notepad out and was searching for a pencil frantically. Nate lazily pulled a pencil out from behind his ear and passed it to his brother.

Aimee was staring at the back of the mansion, quite fearfully I might add. Though to her defence it did look quite foreboding from this angle. I can truly imagine how this place looked like in its prime, it would have been magnificently gorgeous. But now it was sad.

"Well, my name is Sarah Norwell and I am a real-estate agent in the area." She said with a wide smile. Really? In this area? Population 1,500? (Or so the Dullsdrin sign said) How could that be a busy schedule. To each her own I guess.

"I am also, well, like you, a mediator." She said, trying her best to explain. She obviously had never met any other mediators before. But I guess I was shocked too when I had first met Father Dom.

"I instantly knew this was a ghostly matter, and I have met the ghosts myself." She added, her mid length, light brown hair blowing in the cold breeze.

"Ghosts? As in plural?" Shannon said in shock.

"Y-yes." Mrs. Norwell faltered. "There are three of them."

"Three?" Shannon demanded. Jeeze girl, simmer down.

"Now, now, children it may seem like quite the task but I'm sure we can handle it." Father Dom said soothingly.

"What else do you know about them?" Marcus asked.

"Well they grew up here about 60 years ago, in the 50s and 60s eras respectively. They are siblings, two boys and a girl. The boy and girl are twins, the other boy is younger. Their family, the Willow family, has had this house for hundreds of years. They were the last to own it." She said with a sigh.

"After their untimely death, no one wanted the house. It was said to be haunted, well it _was_, and people left it alone. Decades went by and it finally went up for sale. But ever since no one has been able to keep it for long. Families are forced to move out due to haunting and such. It's been extremely hard to try to sell, many have tried." She said.

I looked up at the place. Three siblings eh? Well this might turn out to be interesting.

"I might be a mediator but I don't usually deal with these sort of things. It's an old town so I have tried to mediate what ghosts I could over the years, but I don't deal with hostile ghosts. And these? They are hostile." She said with a frown.

"How did they die?" Nate asked, moving his hair from his face.

"I'm not really sure." Mrs. Norwell said, "They won't talk to me anymore. But I'm sure you all will do your best." She said.

"Alright, well, now on to other accommodations." Mrs. Hackteur began.

"Well I tried to get you all bookings at our hotel here but it seems there isn't enough space…" Mrs. Norwell said, looking uneasy. "There is a corn festival in town you see, and the hotel is very busy."

I turned my eyes to the sky, willing myself not to laugh. Corn festival?

"Where are we staying?" Paul asked what everyone was thinking.

"Well, at the Willow's mansion I would have to say." Mrs. Norwell said uneasily.

"Uh, you said the ghosts were _hostile_." Shannon pointed out sarcastically.

"Only if riled up… I'm sure you all will do fine, you are professionals." She answered back, trying to re assure herself.

"Of course we are." Mrs. Hackteur said briskly. "We will stay here as the hotel is indisposed and this will have to do. The place is certainly big enough for us."

We all looked around a little fearfully at each other, and followed Mrs. Hackteur and Father Dom to the front of the house.

"Well, there is four floors, each with many rooms. I'm sure you'll find everything to your liking. Explore the town as well, it's a lovely place." Mrs. Norwell said warmly.

"I'm sure it is, thank you Sarah." Father Dom said nicely, as he took the house keys from her.

Well this _definitely_ got interesting.

o0o

We walked into the mansion and it was quite impressive. There was a huge foyer with a gorgeous double staircase that led to the second floor and another after that, etc. The place did look old, with columns and oil paintings and antique rugs, but obviously the realtors had kept up the maintenance with cleaning and such.

There was an expansive kitchen (probably from having cooks cook for them) a huge dinning room, sitting room, and entertaining room equipped with an old forties bar. The place looked like an old elegant mix of a century ago with hints of Mad Men. I sort of loved it.

There were many bedrooms like she promised, and we each got our own. (Though I'm sure Paul and Shannon would end up in each others.)

We all met back down in the dinning room to discuss.

"Now I want you all to be professional, remember this is not our house. And explore the town like Mrs. Norwell suggested, I know there is a library here which may be the key to finding out more information on the ghosts. We will be working in teams again as it will be too dangerous to go alone. Now, I am off to bed and I implore you all do the same." She said, nodding to us, before walking out.

Father Dom smiled sweetly, but looked tired (it was a long drive) and followed after her to his own room. Of course the rest of us didn't want to sleep yet.

We all headed to the entertainment room, some of us playing pool on the large red pool table, others playing cards, enjoying our time together at a new place.

I left the card table, we were playing poker and I was losing bad. I headed over the bar where Danny was standing. He was helping himself to some old scotch. I couldn't help myself but talk to him.

"Stealing already?" I asked him in disbelief.

"First of all, these people are dead. So, this alcohol is free for all. Second, it's sixty year old scotch. How could I not?" He said with a wicked grin.

"I guess some things do get better with age." I said.

"Like de Silva?" He said with a cheeky laugh.

"That's an innuendo joke Paul would make." I stated and his face scrunched up.

"I take it back then." He said smiling. I took in his handsome face and his dark, dark hair. It was so hard to hate him but I knew I couldn't just be over what he did yet.

"So you're talking to me now are you?" He quipped, his accent making me smile.

"You seemed really quiet all the way over here. Just… checking on you?" I said.

"Just… thinking of things." He said quietly, with a drink. "I majorly fucked up Suze." He admitted.

"Yeah, you did." I said outright.

"I…" He started to say.

"No. Not now Danny." I interrupted. "It's a little too late to explain… or too soon. I don't know, just not now."

"Alright then Suze, but I do want to talk to ye'h sometime." He said, looking into my eyes. I looked away, I couldn't take this right now. Playing with my heart's strings so easily.

I walked away from him and waved goodnight to everyone, heading to my room on the third floor. I started walking up the dark stairs as someone caught my arm.

"Danny-" I began. But it was Paul.

"Nope." He swiftly answered.

"What do you want Paul?" I asked him.

"You shouldn't be walking alone around here Suze." He pointed out. "Buddy system remember?" I rolled my eyes.

"We aren't buddies." I said.

"Aren't we?" He asked. I sighed,

"Go back to the games Paul. I'll just get Jesse or someone to _escort _me." I said rolling my eyes.

"What's the difference?" He asked, and starting walking up the stairs. The difference is I actually like spending time with him, I thought, gritting my teeth.

"Oh you are such a gentlemen." I said sarcastically following him.

"Obviously." he said with a toothy grin.

We made it to my room finally,

"Well here we are Suze." He said, his blue eyes boring into mine. With the darkness and just the moonlight hitting his face I stared back. He was close to me, a little too close, his mouth open slightly. It looked… It looked like he was going to kiss me?

I blinked rapidly, just standing there and staring at his mouth like an idiot. Well, he did have a nice mouth.

My pulse and heart were hammering around in my body. He slowly pushed some of my dark hair behind one of my ears, his fingers touching the long strands, his eyes watching closely to what he was doing.

He leaned in and I nearly had a heart attack. He very slowly kissed my cheek,

"Well goodnight Simon." He said simply and walked away, towards his own room on the second floor.

What the fuck, was that? I closed my door and locked it behind me, breathing deeply.

WHY had I thought he was going to kiss me? And WHY was I so worked up over it? Get a hold of yourself Suze!

I was acting like such an idiot, augh I'm so embarrassing. Fucking Paul trying to act all charming. Well it was NOT working. Asshole. I huffed and jumped into the bed, pulling the covers to my neck.

Now I'll just TRY to fall asleep and not be thinking over and over about Jesse, Danny and Paul and each of their own unwanted effects on me.

o0o

I woke up the next morning with a start. I looked around the room, wide-eyed, trying to remember exactly where I was.

The room was old, and it looked it with it's aging wallpaper, four poster bed and dusty furniture. But the realtors had somewhat kept up with the place, so it looked nothing like a house that has not been lived in for fifty or some years would have looked.

Except that it _was_ being lived in, well, I guess the inhabitants weren't 'living'.

I had almost forgotten where I was. Travelling around can do that to do. I also felt oddly bare; after sleeping in a room shared with other people for weeks, I was all alone.

It was relatively early, the sun was up but I wasn't too sure if anyone else would be.

I pulled on an old sweatshirt and left my room, walking down the old, dark red carpeted stairs. I padded barefoot into the impressive kitchen and opened up the fridge. Nothing, augh. My stomach grumbled.

"Hungry?"

I whipped around to face Danny, casually sitting on a counter top not far away.

"Starved." I answered him, my voice a little rusty from not using it yet this morning.

He was munching on a shiny red apple, staring at me from over top of it.

"Where did you get that?" I asked. He smiled,

"Secret." He said, with a big gulp. I glared at him,

"Fine, don't tell me." I said, folding my arms over my chest.

"Those are cute boxers." He said with a sly smile on his face. I looked down at my boxers I used to sleep in, they were quite short and showed off my tan legs. At least they were tan now because of summer.

I blushed horribly,

"Whatever Danny." I said, leaving the kitchen. He followed me out,

"I got the apple from a tree out back." He said, offering the apple to me for a bite. Looking like offering Snow White a poisonous apple. I nodded no,

"I'm fine." I said.

"Suit yourself." He quipped.

"Maybe we should go buy groceries for the house." I said, thinking out loud.

"Alright, let's go. I know we passed a farmers market in this town on the way in. We could walk." Dan said.

"I'll take Jesse with me, thanks." Remembering that I was supposed to be angry with Danny.

"Oh really?" He asked sarcastically. "So he is going to help you carry your bags then eh? People going to see groceries moving in thin air?"

"Fine I'll take someone else." I said with gritted teeth.

"Me."

"Anyone else." I answered.

"Fine, but you'll wish you took me." He said with a wink and chomped a large chunk out of his apple and walked away.

o0o

I actually wished I had taken him. Father Dom had put us in groups and assigned us to do chores like go to the library, get supplies and get groceries. I was in the grocery group with Shannon and Marcus.

Marcus was grumpy he couldn't check out the library yet, mumbling about research efforts as he marched ahead to the market. Shannon and I walked casually together after him.

This was going to be a crappy time.

I was wearing a form fitting grey, long sleeved shirt and jeans, with black suede boots. Shannon with jeans, a white tee and grey suede boots. She has on a gorgeous leather belt and envious emerald studs in her ears. Well, I liked her style at least.

"Did you bring the list Suze?" she asked.

"Yes mother." I answered, patting my pocket where our grocery list was. Shannon rolled her eyes,

"Of course we get stuck with a boring job!" She said sourly.

"Better than the library." I answered, enjoying the crisp outside air and sunshine.

"True." She agreed with a smirk.

"I mean it's Hannah, Jesse and Paul. Paul is probably getting ready to jump out a window right now." I said with a laugh, thinking about the odd group and their conflicting personalities.

"Or someone is pushing him out the window." Shannon pointed out, hinting that Jesse would do the pushing.

"Oh you feel the tension between the two?" I asked half sarcastically, pushing my long, dark hair behind my ears.

"Uh, yeah." Shannon said with a small laugh. "Anyone should. An even better group would be Paul, Jesse and Danny." She said.

"We would have more ghosts on our hands as they would kill each other." I said, seeing the market in the distance.

"Maybe if you weren't such a slore, they would be best friends." Shannon said in her annoying voice.

My eyes were wide, is she calling me a slut AND a whore? Bitch it going down-

"I'm kidding Suze." Shannon pointed out with a smile. "Even if you weren't the catalyst for their hatred, which, well, you are, but their personalities are so different I don't think they would ever have been friends."

"I'm… not trying to make it awkward for you and Paul you know." I said, trying to clear the air. I don't even know why I was throwing that out there, but it was the truth and I realized I wanted her to know.

"I know." She said, with thought. "I wasn't sure at first. You never can be with girls around Paul." She said with a quick eye roll. "I know you two had some sort of past…" She said a little questioningly.

"It wasn't really anything." I said quickly.

"Yeah, well, I soon figured that it wasn't going to be an issue. Will it?" She added with a little malice in spite of herself.

"No." I said simply. "There was nothing with Paul, there isn't now and never will be." I reassured her.

"But Jesse hmm?" She said, cracking a smile, relieved to be moving on from the conversation. I was pretty damn relieved as well. Talking about Paul to Paul's girlfriend, wasn't the most pleasant. Especially about our past, one I clearly downplayed.

"Yes?" I answered absent minded as we arrived at the market. It was all on ground level, spread fairly wide with a trifle of people walking around to each stand. People selling watermelons and strawberries to ham and chicken. Everything looked fresh as could be.

Marcus had copied our grocery list for one of his own.

"I think if we divide our group and I'll get the first bit, Suze you some, and Shannon you the rest, it will be much more efficient and quicker." Marcus said looking at me.

"Sounds like a plan." I said, shuffling his hair a bit with my hand. He blushed and walked off with a grocery basket.

I walked a different direction, with my own basket. Shannon followed me and continued talking, clearly ignoring Marcus's plan.

"So you and Jesse had something going on hmm?" She questioned again, a winning smile on her face.

"Uh, I guess you could say that." I said, trying to avoid the topic. I started looking around for eggs.

"Doing the nasty with a ghost. Must be interesting." She said thinking.

"Oh my god, Shannon." I said with a look.

"What?" She said with a glare. "Oh come on it's obvious there was a past. And there is no way you didn't hit that Spanish booty." She said laughing.

"Maybe." I said, a smile creeping up my face in spite of myself. Shannon gasped and hit me in the arm,

"I knew!" She squealed.

"I never admitted anything!" I said, rubbing my arm, and rolling my eyes playfully. God, who knew Shannon and I could even have a playful conversation?

o0o

Marcus, Shannon and I arrived back at the Willow's estate around lunch time. We brought all the groceries to the kitchen and Aimee, Nate and Danny were back to help us with lunch. Father Dom and Mrs. Hackteur had gone out to town for lunch.

By the time our lunch was ready, Jesse, Paul and Hannah had arrived from the library.

"Did you find anything conductive to our research?" Marcus asked instantly.

"No." Grumbled Paul irritably, he snatched one of the sandwiches we made and started eating.

"Sorry Marcus," Jesse said, much more friendly than Paul, "We did not get much accomplished." He said with a sorry smile.

"Doesn't help when two of the members are _ghosts_ and can't exactly pluck a book from the shelves without people noticing." Paul said with venom.

"You guys sound like you have a bonding morning." I said rolling my eyes and shooting a glare at Paul.

"That's pretty funny thinking of them looking through a book and someone seeing the pages flipping themselves." Danny said with a laugh, clasping Jesse on the back. Jesse looked uneasy.

"Oh no, it's so awkward when those things happen!" Hannah said with a knowing look.

Jesse looked a little embarrassed.

"Yeah it was pretty useless." Paul said, shooting Jesse a look. Blaming only one ghost clearly. I shot him one right back,

"Oh, fuck off Paul." I said, protective of Jesse.

"It is fine Susannah," Jesse said calmly, "I do not think Paul has ever entered a library in his life so maybe he was just confused."

Everyone around the room looked uneasily from Paul to Jesse. Danny and Nate seemed to think it was hilarious.

"Need popcorn." Nate said jokingly.

"Needless to say, they weren't too successful." Danny said.

"No thanks to you either. Did you seem to get anything accomplished?" Paul said, clapping the sandwich crumbs off his fingers. Danny glared at Paul and I left the kitchen and the children to their dramatics. Jesse followed.

"Sorry you're morning was so crappy Jesse." I said, walking up the stairs.

"That is fine Susannah. I have been through worse. Possibly." He said jokingly. "At least Hannah was a joy."

We walked into some of the rooms, simply investigating. The room we stood in must have been a study of some sort, there was chalk boards, books and a large globe made of marble. It was beautiful.

"How was your morning?" He asked.

"Alright actually." I said thinking back, "Shannon and I actually talked and I didn't want to hit her so. That's good?"

"I see!" He said laughing.

"Look at this globe Jesse." I said, gasping, spinning the marble. It was smooth to the touch.

"That is impressive." Jesse said, nodding his head.

"We are here!" I said, jabbing my finger at the globe. Pointing to Oregon.

"Yes." Jesse answered with a smile. He covered his tan hand on my own, slowly moving my fingers down the map a bit. "And this is where I'm from." He said softly. "And where you are from…" he said, slowing moving my hand across the country. "And where we are both from…' he said, dragging it back to California.

My heart hammered a bit in my chest, I looked at him over my shoulder, his hand still on mine. I looked into his deep, dark eyes and trustful face.

Our serene moment was shattered by the globe its self, shattering into a million pieces in front of us. Shock was not enough to describe my emotion.

"WHAT THE-" I yelled as we jumped back, protecting our faces. Tiny shards went into my hand and it hurt like hell.

But there was more important matters. We whipped around to see two ghosts standing by the front of the room, their arms crossed over their chests. They had clearly exploded the globe with their powers.

One tall boy and one tall girl, glared menacingly at me and Jesse. I glared right back, bring it.

* * *

**Review the chapter guys! And to my reviewers, no I'm not letting anyone know if this is a J/S, P/S or D/S, sorry! ;) I think the sexual tension between characters really drives stories, tv shows, movies, etc. ****The fact that it can go any way is best.**

**Have a Happy Holidays!**

**xx Fox**


	11. The Birthday Party

**My heart hammered a bit in my chest, I looked at him over my shoulder, his hand still on mine. I looked into his deep, dark eyes and trustful face.**

**Our serene moment was shattered by the globe its self, shattering into a million pieces in front of us. Shock was not enough to describe my emotion. **

"**WHAT THE-" I yelled as we jumped back, protecting our faces. Tiny shards went into my hand and it hurt like hell.**

**But there was more important matters. We whipped around to see two ghosts standing by the front of the room, their arms crossed over their chests. They had clearly exploded the globe with their powers. **

**One tall boy and one tall girl, glared menacingly at me and Jesse. I glared right back, bring it.**

Chapter 11 - The Birthday Party

o0o

I breathed deeply, taking in my foes in front of me. They were startling at first; both at impressive heights, even the girl, both with dark, dark hair, and gleaming eyes. They were stunning too, gorgeous in every sense.

They were dressed flawlessly, in tailored clothing that fit every inch of them. She had on a scoop neck dress that flared out and stopped at her knees. The blue of the dress matched her vibrant blue eyes, and her dark hair was in perfect curls at her shoulders. A pearl pendant held some curls back.

He was wearing an impeccable dark blue suit, with a matching skinny tie. His dark hair was parted on the side, slicked over and shinning. He looked like he walked straight out of a movie, Inception? The great Gatsby? Mad Men definitely. It was dangerously sexy and if I wasn't so pissed off, I would have melted into a gooey puddle.

I didn't realize I was holding my breathe until I took a sharp breathe in.

"We do not want trouble here." Jesse said, calmly raising his hands. We didn't? But I could see his face looked troubled, if anything he was probably worried about what I would do.

"Then you'll leave." The girl said, her dainty voice hard and cold.

"We are here for a job." I said. "And that job would be getting rid of you." Jesse winced at my words,

"That is one way to put it." He said. I shrugged. The boy, or shall I say, man, since he looked older than me, spoke,

"Sending a ghost to get rid of a ghost? Well that's a new one." He gave a dazzling smile.

"We like it here." The girl said, speaking slowly as if Jesse and I were children.

"Really?" I said sarcastically, "Aren't you two a little old to be haunting your mommy's and daddy's mansion?" The two instantly glared at me,

"You don't know what you're talking about." The guy said, his smile had vanished.

"Just couldn't leave daddy's money behind was that it?" I said defiantly.

"_Don't_ speak of things you know nothing about." The girl hissed. I could feel their energy building, things in the room started to shake violently. Jesse looked at me nervously,

"Susannah _please_." He urged. "I can always leave the situation but you are in fact the only living one here. Let us keep it that way." I could hear the worry in his voice, the worry that maybe us two were not a match for them. That pissed me off more.

The guy took a step towards us,

"Come on sister, let us show them what happens with unwanted guests." He said, a slow smile playing on his lips. But before anything could happen someone else had materialized right in front of our eyes.

"Gwen, what's going on?" A small child had appeared in the room, looking up at the girl. He looked over at Jesse and I, his blonde hair and big blue eyes made him look even more innocent.

"Nothing." The girl, Gwen, mentioned. "Leave Jerry." She said, wiping her hands down her dress.

"No! I want to know what's going on?" He said, a little angry pout on his face.

"Jerry-" Gwen began in anger but the guy cut her off,

"Gwen, it's fine. This isn't the time." he said, smiling at the boy. "Jerry, these are some house guests of ours. They were just leaving." He said.

"Staying actually." I replied coolly. The guy shot me a smirk.

"Dean, I don't _like_ them." Gwen said, stamping her foot at her twin.

"There are plenty of them in the house and this will take time." He said soothingly. Well, I guess they knew MED had arrived. Jerry looked back at me and Jesse.

"A cowboy!" He shouted gleefully and ran over towards Jesse.

"Jerry!" Gwen shouted in fear as he flung himself at Jesse, wrapping his little seven year old self around Jesse's torso. Dean stepped forward, protective.

"It is fine." Jesse said, showing them he was not going to cause harm. He unwrapped the boy's arms off of him. "I am not a cowboy little boy." He said, smiling at him, "But I can understand the confusion."

"No you're a cowboy!" The boy gleefully said.

"Well no-" Jesse began.

"Yes, yes he is." I said and the boy smiled. Jesse gave me an unappreciative look.

"Let's go." Gwen said, not smiling at all. Jerry looked at Jesse and me with a giggle one last time before racing over to his sister.

"Okay, only if we get to see them again." He said. Gwen rolled her eyes, grabbed Jerry and dematerialized with him.

"Oh, we will." Dean said, winked at me, and then disappeared.

o0o

"They were definitely twins, and there was a younger boy as well." Jesse said to our group. All of MED was sitting in a parlour room, listening to Jesse and I recount the information.

"They were quite powerful, the twins, I could feel a very strong energy from them. If the boy had not showed up I am not sure what would have happened." he said, taking a sideways glance at me.

I refrained from rolling my eyes.

"So the boy, their younger brother, is a weakness to them." Paul said, thinking.

"We can't just use the kid to our advantage." Marcus said, reading Paul's thoughts right.

"Why not?" Paul and I both said in unison. Ugh.

"We will not be using this poor child as some sort of secret weapon." Father Dom said disapprovingly.

"But we know he is a weakness of sorts," I said explaining, "At least we know they have some sort of feelings and not just blind rage. They will contain themselves around him."

"We do not know that as a fact. We certainly need more information on our spectres." Mrs. Hackteur said. Most of us inwardly groaned. Marcus looked chipper. Library time!

"And no travelling alone." Father Dom reminded everyone, "We don't know the extent of their power yet."

We all decided to call it a day. Marcus immediately went off to the library, Hannah and Aimee went after him to help him out. Father Dom and Mrs. Hackteur left to go check out the corn festival. Have _fun._

The rest of us lazy people decided to stay in.

We hung out in the games room; Nate and Danny started to play pool and Shannon and Paul were putting old records on a record player.

Jesse and I sat on a long red couch.

"Susannah, that could have gone wrong back there." Jesse said, thinking about our run in with the ghosts.

"Nothing happened Jesse." I said with a sigh.

"But it very well could have. I cannot properly fend off anyone when my mind would be completely worrying about you." He said.

"Jesse I can take care of myself." I said.

"_Querida_ not in every situation. Sometimes it is too much." He said, his face worried. I looked into his dark eyes, I hated making him worry about me. We were so close on the couch, our noses almost practically touched.

"Hey you know what guys?" Nate said, getting all out attention, and breaking up Jesse and I.

"Hannah's birthday is coming up soon." He said, "And I think we should do something pretty cool about it." He said, flicking his shaggy blonde hair out of his face. It was starting to look a little 'Justin Bieber', but he pulled it off.

"What do you have in mind?" Jesse asked.

"We should definitely have a party." Danny said, shooting a pool ball into its hole.

"A theme party!" Shannon said, clapping in delight.

"Sure, sure, all good ideas." Nate said nodding with a smile. "What theme?"

"Toga, can't go wrong." Danny said. Paul rolled his eyes,

"This isn't a frat movie." He said. Danny gave him the finger.

"Hawaiian theme?" Nate suggested.

"Or cowboy. Oh look, Jesse already has a costume." Paul said with a laugh.

Jesse and I glared at him in unison.

"No, no." Shannon said, elbowing Paul. "We _must_ do an old glamorous theme! Like old Hollywood."

"Or Mad Men?" I suggested, thinking of Dean and Gwen.

"Yes!" Shannon said with glee, "All the guys in suits and girls in dresses. The bar here is perfect for it."

We all agreed to Nate and Shannon's plans, deciding to have a surprise birthday party for Hannah. I didn't realize ghosts still celebrated birthdays, or maybe it was only Hannah. Jesse certainly didn't. Or maybe he didn't want to think about it. It made me a little sad.

People were milling around the record player, trying to find the perfect music that would go with our theme and helping Nate plan food choices for the party.

I practiced some shots on the pool table when Danny came up behind me. He put his arms around mine, showing me how to properly line up and take a perfect shot. His breathe was warm on my face and his body was pressed into mine.

"Danny…" I warned, stepping away from him. He was too close, too fast, especially for what he had done to me not that long ago.

"Suze…" He said back in a dramatic fashion, mocking me.

"Shut up." I said, poking him with my pool stick.

"Look, you're good Suze, but you could do better." He said, helping me line up another shot. His body close to mine again, our breathing in sync. The ball went in the hole.

"Perfect." He said, and kissed me on the cheek. I blushed horribly and walked away, looking up to catch Paul looking at me with an unimpressed face.

I walked out the room and headed to the front door, I needed some air. I sat on the front steps of the mansion, the sun was slowly disappearing behind the trees, setting for the night.

I heard the door open and close, Paul sat beside me. He still looked unimpressed.

"What?" I snapped.

"Really Suze? Danny." He said, gazing lazily at the setting sun. His light blue eyes reflecting in the light.

"Danny what?" I said, my eyebrows in confusion.

"I saw you two. All over each other again. You don't forget what happened do you?" He asked sarcastically.

"No." I said, gritting my teeth. "Nothing is going on. Jesus, what's it to you?" I said.

"Looking out for you. You seem to fall in the same old habits." He said, with double meaning.

"I'm fine." I said. I sighed and sat back, gazing at the last bit of the sun, feeling the cold air swoop in.

Paul and I sat in a comfortable silence, weirdly enough, watching the night sky. Hannah Marcus and Aimee returned and we exchanged brief hellos. They hadn't found anything we didn't already know.

Once they were inside, I got up to do the same.

"Suze," Paul said standing, reaching to his full height. "I'm just trying to look out for you."

"Okay Paul." I said, looking up at him, for once trying to trust him. _Trying_ being the operative word.

o0o

The weeks flew by without much happening. There hadn't been much activity from our resident ghosts either. One of them had been playing a prank on Marcus by floating his glasses in the air, which was probably Jerry as I can't really see Gwen or Dean doing that sort of thing.

Shannon has said she had felt a presence of some sort but was adamant that they hadn't shown because they were scared of Paul's powers. I had rolled my eyes.

We spent the next two weeks leisurely checking out the rest of the mansion, all its rooms and basement. There was so many rooms I lost count. Bedrooms, maids quarters to bathrooms with bathtubs that could fit ten people. Schooling rooms, a small astronomy tower, and an indoor pool we hadn't noticed yet and were delighted to find (though it did need some cleaning).

There was butlers areas, a small green house, an artist's room and more. There were some paintings probably worth a fortune from hundreds of years ago, to sleek kitchen appliances. The mix of generations of family members styling and items, it truly was beautiful and historic.

We grocery shopped, and checked out the library (some of us only when we had to because of Mrs. Hackteur.) We hadn't found really anything except for a few mentions of them in the local newspaper - which the library saved - so we had to go through hours of papers just to sometimes find a mention about them in a news story.

It was extremely tedious and boring having to carefully go through each piece of over hundreds of papers. And no information had helped us so far.

But we found fun things to do day by day; hanging out in the backyard or around town. All of us kids even checked out the corn festival together. Good times.

Now it was the day of the surprise party for Hannah and we were getting ready. Nate had decided to take Hannah out for the day, that way we could get the party ready and she wouldn't find out.

She was more than delighted to go out on a date with Nate.

We had decorated the games room the best we could. There wasn't exactly a party store around but we bought a dozen red balloons and got her a cake. We weren't even sure if a cake was a good idea, seeing as how she couldn't really eat it, but it was a birthday party so we did.

There was a cute little bakery that made gorgeous fondant cakes so we bought a black and white, circular one, the colors keeping with the old glamour feel. Though it did seem a little morbid for a ghost, so we got them to add a pink fondant flower. Much more Hannah.

The boys had rooted around the house and found some old music, some Frank Sinatra some Artie Shaw, Louis Armstrong, Sammy Davis Jr. - it would work perfectly.

In some of the rooms we found clothes and clothes, girls, boys, women's, men. They were all beautiful.

The boys found some suits that they could wear, probably Dean's. They are all around the same tall height so the suits fit well, except Nate's were slightly baggy and nothing would fit Marcus because he was still short.

Marcus had some nice clothes of his own so, it wasn't a suit but he wore nice black dress pants and a white button up, he was adorable. Shannon and I slicked back his shaggy hair and giggled at him blushing.

Shannon, Aimee and I rooted through the dresses to find the ones we wanted. I had a bad feeling they were probably Gwen's and she wouldn't be happy if she happened to hang around tonight and saw us wearing them, but they were simply stunning and I stopped caring.

Us girls were getting ready in a large vanity room, mirrors the size of the wall adored with lights and beauty tables.

Shannon had her blonde hair in curlers upon her head, applying fake eyelashes to her eyes.

My own long dark hair was up in curlers as well, thanks to Shannon. I had my own makeup almost finished, a smokey eye. And although I didn't need false eyelashes, my naturals were dark and quite long, I added them for extra glamour, as per Shannon's request. Ugh, was I turning into her?

We both decided to work on Aimee as she never wore a stitch of makeup, or did anything with her hair. I was applying makeup to a slightly squirming Aimee as Shannon teased her brown hair.

"Aimee hold still a sec…" I said frowning, trying to apply liquid liner.

"It's hurting." She said, in particular to Shannon who was pulling her hair back.

"Oh, it's fine!" An exasperated Shannon said rolling her eyes. "You should be doing your hair more, and makeup."

"She doesn't have to." I defended of Aimee and she shot me a grateful smile.

"But you do look gorgeous." I said, stepping back for her to see herself in the mirror.

I had done light makeup, so not to scare her because she never wears any, but even with simple makeup it was a bit of a transformation. Her blue eyes popped with the dark mascara and gold lids.

Her hair was teased in a high pony which suited her rounder face; she looked pretty. She smiled in spite of herself,

"Well, I do look good." She said, blushing.

"You do." Shannon said, flicking her pony.

We got dressed and admired ourselves in the mirror for the moment. Shannon had her hair in ringlets, reminiscence of Gwen's, though they never met. If Gwen could see Shannon wearing her dress, with her hair style, she would blow a fuse. Hopefully she wouldn't be hanging around to see.

She was wearing a white satin dress that dragged to the floor, with tiny winged sleeves. It matched well with her very pink glossed lips. Aimee had on a dark blue dress that tied behind her neck with buttons all the way down her back. It matched her dark blue eyes and hugged her figure in a flattering way.

My hair was down and long, in big curls framing away from my face. It was parted on the side giving glamorous Hollywood waves, the dark strands shinning, my green eyes popping. I had on blood red lipstick on my pouty lips that perfectly matched my red dress. It was strapless and floor length. It was pure silk, frame fitting and absolutely gorgeous.

We found some old jewellery in antique boxes and put them on, promising to return them after the night. I had on gold bracelets and a ruby necklace to match my dress. Aimee wore pearls and Shannon wore large jade earrings.

We had such a fun time getting ready together, it was a little shocking. I found once I relaxed and opened myself to these girls, I actually enjoyed myself. We took a couple cute pictures with Shannon's pink camera and she promised to take more in the night.

There was a knock at the door. I opened it and Jesse's handsome face was on the other side.

"_Querida_…" he breathed. "Beautiful."

"Jesse you make me blush!" I said giving him a smile. "Come in the room." He walked in,

"You girls all look beautiful." Jesse said nodding to Shannon and Aimee.

"Thank you." Shannon said with a twirl. Aimee blushed horribly and covered her smile. Jesse was so unaware of his affect on girls.

Jesse couldn't change into a suit, being a ghost, but he looked dapper as usual in his own clothes and crisp black hair.

"Shall I accompany you girls downstairs?" Jesse asked and we giggled. We walked down the stairs to where the rest of the boys were waiting for us, to finish the party before Hannah got back.

Luckily for us, Mrs. Hackteur and Father Dominic got called upon for a MED meeting with some of the officials back in California so they had to leave for three days. Which worked out perfectly for us because having a party in a mansion that didn't belong to us, probably wouldn't fly well with them.

We walked down the stairs, myself at the back because Shannon had wrapped her arms around Jesse's and I didn't want to be near her giggling, and he was to polite to shrug her off. 'At Last' by Etta James was playing, I could hear it from the games room. Such a gorgeous old classic song.

I slowly dragged my eyes up to the scene before me, the boys all standing at the bottom of the stairs. Danny, Paul, Nate, Jesse and Marcus all were looking handsome as ever in their suits and dress pants. Marcus and Nate's hair was slicked back, and off their face (for once).

Paul and Danny's hair both were left side parted and looking just out of the old Hollywood, or Mad Men theme, whatever we had decided on. My eyes locked with Paul's steely blue ones.

Memories of the winter dance came rushing back, me all dolled up, Paul in a suit, the dance, the disaster. The music swelled and unexpected tears hit my eyes. I quickly blinked them back and took a sharp intake of breathe. I broke my eye contact with Paul, annoyed I had let myself think of the past.

I can't let it in.

I got to the bottom of the stairs and felt Paul's eyes still on me, I looked up to him, taking in his handsome appearance, he suited the look he was wearing very well. A big smile broke on his face, but then Shannon walked by me and into his arms. Ah, the smile was for her. _Why _had I thought it was for me?

We made our way to the games room, all of us admiring each others outfits and ecstatic to get the party going.

"Hannah should be here soon…" Nate thought aloud. "I told her to go check out the property for any signs of the ghosts, so I had time to change."

"Guys?" we heard Hannah's light voice, calling into the house.

"In here!" Nate yelled back, and we all stayed silent in anticipation. She walked literally through the closed double doors and we yelled 'surprise' as loud as we could.

"Oh, my, god!" she screamed back in joy. She was beaming, looking around the room, at the cake, at our outfits and hair.

"We wanted an old glamorous feel." Shannon said, pursing her pink lips. Suddenly with terror I realized how this might all look. All of us wearing period piece outfits, gorgeous dresses and suits. Hannah was stuck wearing a white tank top and blue jeans forever.

"It's wonderful." she said, jumping up and down in excitement. Relief filled me, if it was anyone less sweet as Hannah, they would have been upset.

The music was playing and drinks were flowing, martinis and gin and tonics around the room. "You're Nobody until Somebody loves you" by Frank Sinatra was playing.

I was pulled onto the dance floor and swept into the arms of Danny. His dark, dark hair was swept to the side, a gorgeous, sly smile on his face.

"You are nobody until somebody loves you-" he sang, his Irish tones crooning to the music. I laughed and let myself dance with him, he brought me in close then twirled me and brought me in again.

I giggled and let myself relax, not thinking about any consequences or what this might mean or who was watching. I picked up the hem of my silk red dress, so not to step on it, I laughed as he twirled me again. He brought his lips close to my ear,

"As sure as the stars shine above. You're nobody until somebody loves you, go out and get yourself somebody, somebody to love." he sang, dipping me over and planting a soft kiss on my lips. I laughed into his mouth and Nate whistled from across the room.

I gave Danny I warning look with my eyes but a playful smile was on my lips, wagging my finger at him,

"I don't think so." I said. As we danced, I quickly exchanged partners and grabbed on to Jesse who pulled me away. An old jazz song began to play and I rested my head on his strong shoulder.

I gazed dreamily at everyone in the room. This was such a fantastic night.

Nate and Hannah were dancing in an old flapper style way, gaining laughs. Shannon was illuminating in her white dress, dancing with her arms behind Paul's head. Marcus was laughing watching Nate and Hannah, and Dan had grabbed Aimee and was twirling her around, she was blushing the whole time.

The night continued on and it was definitely a blast. We all got a little looser with the alcohol flowing, with the exception of Marcus, Hannah and Jesse of course.

"This is all so amazing Jesse." I gushed as we danced again.

"Everyone did a great job." He agreed. "Hannah is very happy." We looked over at her exploding in laughter over something Dan said.

"I can't believe you lived through all these time periods." I said, looking around at what everyone was wearing. "It's all so glamorous!"

"It wasn't all glamorous Susannah," he replied, "There was plenty of hard times. I also was haunting the house for most of it…" He said, a note of sadness in his voice. "The world might have been changing but I was staying the same. After so long you can only be around people who never see you."

I felt an overwhelming feeling of sadness for him,

"Jesse…" I said, looking into his soulful eyes.

"You walking into that bedroom was the best moment of my life." He said and my breath was taken away. We stared at each other for moments too long and we broke away, both embarrassed.

"I'm just going to get a drink…" I mumbled and stumbled off to the bar.

'Hello Dolly' by Bobby Darin was playing and the room was bouncing. I grabbed a vodka tonic and drank steadily.

"Now, now Suze don't drink too much, you know what happened last time." Danny said, grabbing himself some whisky on ice. He raised his eyebrows, alluding to the memory of the last time we were both in a drinking situation. Oh yeah, we slept together.

"Actually, drink up." He said with a laugh.

"Shut up." I said.

"Well, I'd say this party is a success." He said.

"A keg in a room to you would be a success." I told him.

"So? As long as you're there." He said with a sideways smile.

"Oh god, you're corny." I said with a laugh.

"Com'mon, let's dance." he quipped and pulled me to the floor. I wasn't in necessarily the right sober state for me to be twirling all over, and he knew that, so we danced close as everyone else danced wildly around us.

He smelt like his usual cologne, it filled my head with nice thoughts.

"You miss me yet Suze?" he asked charmingly.

"No." I said, gritting my teeth. Liar, I thought of myself.

"Can I cut in?" we turned to face Paul. I hadn't really talked to him all night. Danny glared,

"No." He said.

"Be nice." I said to Danny, and put my hand into Paul's outstretched one. "Moon River." began to play and I relaxed my body into Paul's, but tried not to be too close. I looked around the room distractedly.

"She went to bed." Paul said, reading my mind. I had been looking around for Shannon.

"Too much too drink. She partied a little too hard."

"Well she was throwing back those martinis pretty fast." I giggled. Poor girl. "I just don't want her to get the wrong idea."

"What idea would that be?" Paul asked.

"I don't- don't know…" I said. "Just, whatever." I managed to say and we danced silently.

"I love this song." Paul said and I was surprised.

"Me too." I agreed.

"I never got to tell you how beautiful you look tonight, Simon." He said, moving some of my dark curls from my shoulder.

"Well, you clean up well Paul." I admitted. Actually he cleaned up more than well, he looked like a freaking model but I wasn't going to say that.

"We should have been born in this era, it suits us." He said.

"Yeah." I actually agreed. I wouldn't mind seeing these guys in their tailored suits everyday.

Nate and Aimee were spinning, Aimee's drink spilling a bit on the floor and he bumped into me, obliviously knocking me into Paul further. Well, _she_ was coming out of her shell.

I didn't back away, but Paul didn't push me away either.

I looked up into those cold blue eyes of his, but all I could see was the warmth in them smiling back at me.

"What are you thinking?" he asked.

"I-I don't know." I managed to stammer. "I need to breathe." I said. He looked confused,

"Are you okay?" he asked concerned. No! I wanted to scream. I needed to keep the memories down. The dance, him chasing me, us falling into the fountain…

I pushed away from him,

"I just need air." I said and meekly smiled, walking out of the room. Luckily everything was so busy and the party was in full swing so no one else noticed me leave.

Instead of walking out the front door, I headed further into the mansion. It was quite dark but I used my hand along the walls for navigation and support.

I wasn't sure if this whole trip was really helping me or hindering me. It was certainly bringing up a lot of memories I wish I'd just forget.

Why did I have to kiss him back at the dance? It was over two years ago but I still questioned it. Why did I continue it when I could have stopped it all. Flashes of my silvery dress and his dark tux came to mind.

I shook my head and kept walking. Soon I ended up at the indoor pool. It was a gorgeous room, mosaic tiles lining the floors and walls. They were all shades of white and blues, oh so many blues, it looked like a Grecian paradise.

The water of the pool was blue because of the blue tiles on the bottom, reflecting back. They kept the pool room, and the mansion, fairly clean for selling, so I suppose the pool was useable. I took my heels off and tipped a foot in. It was freezing but so soothing.

I sighed, looking up at the sky lit night. There was a large sky roof over the pool, letting in light from the stars and full moon, so much light that the electrical lighting in the room was sparse but the whole room was still lit. It was magnificent.

"Going to take a dip?" A voice rang out and I whipped around, my heart hammering in my chest.

Dean stood, his ghostly aura shinning for a second in the moonlight, until he stepped out of the shadows. A playful grin was on his handsome face. The other boys looked gorgeous dressing up but this wasn't dress up for him, this was his everyday attire and my god he pulled it off well.

"Dean." I said, my guard put up. "What do you want?"

"Just dropped by for a playful swim with you, Suze." He said.

"Have you been watching us?" I asked, wondering vaguely how he knew my name. He smiled lightly, and I knew they probably had been.

"Just trying to get a feel of our house guests." He said, "You especially have been fun to watch." He raked his eyes up and down me. I felt a little naked in my clingy silk dress. The red from the dress, reflecting in the water.

"You love lovely." He said, smiling. "Outright stunning."

"Look Dean, what do you want?" I said, trying to ignore his remarks, though my heart was hammering in my chest. He might be gorgeous but he was also dangerous and I hadn't forgotten that.

"I didn't say I did… but if you are mentioning it." He said, dematerializing and then appearing so he was right in front of me. I screamed and fell backwards but he grabbed me from falling into the pool.

"Careful Suze, you could get hurt if you aren't watching out." He said, with threat in his voice. His hands were still on my arms.

"I'm fine. You just startled me." I said, moving my arms out of his hands. He brushed a long tendril of hair from my face.

"I really do like the look you all have on." He said. "I was thinking of crashing your little party back there." He said thinking. "Birthday party for a ghost." he huffed, "Silly, silly." He said, tracing a finger up and down my arm, giving me goosebumps.

My voice was catching in my throat,

"It's n-not." I said. Ooh, real powerful Suze, I thought sarcastically.

"If it gets you in a dress like this then I'm all for it." He said, outlining the top of my neckline with his finger.

"Umm" I managed to say. I couldn't step away from him or I'd fall into the pool.

"Look, I should get back." I said, putting my hands to his chest and pushing slightly. But he was hard as a rock to try to move. Stupid ghost powers.

"They won't miss you." He said, with a sly smile, "But I will."

Dean leaned down and kissed me gingerly on the lips. I was at first too stunned to do or say anything. He pulled me in tight to his body and pushed the kiss even harder.

"Get off!" I managed and pushed at him but he held on. He ignored me and kissed me again, his hand on the back of my head, pushing me into his lips.

"Whaaat the fuck." I heard a voice say, and we both looked over to see Paul standing by the glass doors, entering the pool room.

I pushed at Dean again, but he was powerful.

"Get off I said!" I said angrily.

"Let her go." Paul said, glaring to kill at Dean.

He smirked and moved away, letting me go.

"Just seeing what all the fuss was about." Dean said, looking at me. "Don't mean to intrude on your girl. Or is she the cowboy's?" He said cracking a grin.

Paul didn't say anything but glared deeper at Dean.

"You don't know us." I said.

"And you don't know _us_." Dean said, running a hand through gorgeous hair. He had Michael Fassbender hair for sure. Keep you're cool Suze.

"So stop trying to get rid of us." Dean said angrily.

"You won't let us get to know you." I snapped back.

"Other than his mouth, right Suze?" Paul said, glaring at me.

"Oh like I wanted it?" I said exasperated. "Look," I turned to Dean. "You're a ghost. You don't belong in this world anymore."

"And the cowboy does? Why don't you get rid of him?" Dean shot back.

"I've tried several times." Paul said and I gave him a not so nice finger.

"The cowb-Jesse, is not you're business." I said forcefully. Dean raised his hands in surrender,

"Alright, alright. Enough with the cowboy. Well this has been a fun night, thanks Suzie." He said, giving a wink and disappearing. I stood there, mouth open at the spot he disappeared.

"So care to explain?" Paul said, walking towards me when suddenly Gwen appeared, apparently in a fit.

"Wow two visits in one night, lucky us." I said rolling my eyes.

"Shut up!" she shrilled, her dark hair bouncing. She flattened her short blue dress with her hands. "Look at you! All of you! Wearing my things!" She screamed. The pool started to bubble with her anger.

"Oh, Gwen, I actually am sorry, I suppose-" I began.

"No! You can't just wear those things! You little bitch." she said darkly suddenly spotting the ruby pendant I was wearing. "Give. It. Back." she said, shakily pointing at it.

"What? The necklace?" I asked.

"My father gave that to my mother!" she yelled. "Give it to me! You thief!" She screamed.

"I was going to return it!" I shot back, annoyed.

"Look, miss, you need to calm down." Paul said, noticing the room shaking a bit.

"No!" Gwen screamed but looked over Paul appreciatively. I rolled my eyes.

"Here." I said, unclasping it and walking towards her. She snatched it from my hands and slapped me quick and hard across the face. I let out a short scream but it died quickly. I held my face in shock and looked at her.

"Never take his gifts to her, again." She said with menace. I was speechless. Normally I would hit right back but she was sort of right. I mean, she was dead, but still, these weren't mine to take or wear. Paul stepped forward and pulled me back into his arms protectively.

"You need to leave Gwen." He said, equally as dangerous. "I understand that when something means something very important to you, you lose all control. But you hit something important to me, and you need to leave." Paul said, radiating his own powerful shifter aura off himself. I could sense it and so could Gwen.

She sniffled.

"Fine. But we aren't done here." She said, glaring at me. She dematerialized with the pendant, but not before letting out a blast of energy, knocking both me and Paul backyards several feet into the pool.

I swam to the surface and gasped for air.

"That bitch!" I yelled, my voice echoing into the room. Paul ran his hand back through his wet hair. His suit was clinging to his body, horrified I looked down to see my dress doing the same. He chuckled and I glared at him,

"This is funny?" I spat.

"A little." He said, doing the backstroke for a bit and I cracked a small smile.

Well it was pretty funny we were both so soaked after getting so dolled up for tonight. The water was freezing but freeing in a way. I floated on my back and looked up through the sky light, looking at the beautiful stars.

"This place is pretty amazing." He said, floating beside me, looking up at the same stars.

"Yeah." I breathed.

We floated in silence for a while. It was relaxing.

Then I waded so I could touch the bottom of the pool with my feet at least. I leaned back against the cold mosaic wall of the pool, my head leant back on the edge, my dress and hair floating out around me.

Paul swam under water and popped up directly in front of me. He put his arms on either side of my head, he was very close. So close I could see water droplets on his long eyelashes and see that he was going to need to shave soon. Our noses were practically touching.

We both didn't say anything for a while, he seemed to be in a comfortable silence, playing a game with me. Seeing who would break first. Daring me to push him away. He thought it was funny.

Oppositely, I was, internally going crazy. This whole thing was so reminiscence of years ago. A fight, us falling into water, my dress ruined.

I closed my eyes, willing to forget. I opened them and he was still there.

"Suze-" he began to say something but I cut him off by leaning forward, looking into his eyes, and back to his mouth.

He didn't move.

I then kissed him.


	12. Regarding Regrets

**Disclaimer: **I do not own the Mediator series or any of its characters.

**Hey dolls! So sorry for the late update, I had a very busy past month with work, but I made a nice long chapter for you guys. **

**Thank you to the readers and especially the reviewers! It seriously drives me to keep writing. **

**That last chapter was my favorite to write so far, and I'm excited about the next coming chapters for this story!**

**Enjoy. **

**xx Fox **

* * *

Chapter 12: Regarding Regrets

o0o

The kiss lasted a second before I snapped my head back, my eyes wide. What did I just do? Paul looked equally as shocked and confused.

"I-" I began but cut off, at a loss for words. I pushed him away, hard, and swam to the stairs of the pool. I walked out of the pool as quickly as I could, which was hard considering my long, now wet, dress was a lot heavier than before.

"Suze, wait..." I heard Paul say after me, quickly getting out of the pool as well, which I'm sure was no easy feat in a wet suit and tie.

I ignored him and ran to the door to free myself of this situation but it was locked. I pushed on it harder, and it didn't bulge. It didn't seem to have a lock on it though... it must have been a ghostly trick I suspected. It would be something Dean or Gwen would do, lock us in here.

"Fuck!" I said angrily. I let my forehead hit against the door and sighed, forcing myself to turn back towards Paul.

He had two large, blue towels in his hands.

"They sealed the door huh?" He said with a smirk. "They are so immature." He then closed his eyes and stood ridgedly.

"Um..." I questioned.

"Can't seem to demateriazlie out of the room, not for lack of trying. They must have a pretty powerful spiritual block on it." He said with a frown. "What brats."

I nodded and stood there, starting to shake a little with the cold. He tossed me a towel. "They haven't probably been used in a while, smell sort of musty but… it will do the trick." He said, referring to the old towels.

I couldn't bring myself to talk to him so I just wrapped the towel around me. We stood there in a horribly awkward silence as we tried to dry off the best we could. My mind was racing. I had just kissed Paul. _I _had just kissed Paul. What the fuck, no.

I had lent my head forward and kissed him, shocking us both. I haven't kissed him in well over two years! He has a girlfriend who he loves for god's sakes! I didn't even like the guy! He pissed me off more than anyone I knew and he ruined any sort of happiness I could have had with Jesse!

I was pissed now. Pissed at him and mostly pissed at myself for being such an idiot. I was caught up in memories of two years ago and then he was so damn close to my face and it just randomly happened.

I looked up at him, glaring. And he was so nonchalant about it! I was the only one going crazy inside and this was apparently no big deal to him. Asshole.

"Well, I guess we better find a better way out." He said, looking around the room. He noticed my hateful look. "Suze?"

"Obviously." I said, gritting my teeth. But I didn't budge. I was freezing anyways and didn't want to go searching around for some exit with him. Paul walked around to the back of the room where there was a set of change rooms and a steam room.

"There is a window back here that we could jimmy open and fit through!" He yelled and it echoed into the pool room.

"Great." I said, mustering a reaction.

I seriously wanted to cry. _Why_ had I kissed him? I was ruining everything.

He wasn't mine to kiss.

And I certainly didn't want him to be. And he obviously didn't want me to be kissing him either, his reaction was telling enough.

"You coming?" He yelled and I forced myself to walk over to him.

He tried to open it but it would only open a couple inches before being jammed. I could see the exertion in his face. He stepped back and raised his hands to it, concentrating on the window.

"Um, what are you doing?" I asked.

"Shifter abilities." He said, not blinking. The window started to shake and open a little more. I could probably stick out my arm if I wanted but there was no way we could fit out.

"Dammit!" He said, looking tired.

"Not enough power?" I asked. He glared at me,

"Well maybe if _someone_ had kept up with their shifting lessons, than maybe they could help." He snapped.

"That was two years ago Paul." I said with a sigh.

"Yes Suze, a lot of things were two years ago." He said with double meaning. I seriously felt like he had just slapped me across the face, with words of course.

What did _that _mean? A lot of things were two years ago? Like a kiss between us? He didn't need to point out how damn inappropriate my kiss just was, I _knew _that. Too little too late, he was hinting. Fuck him.

He slumped down on the ground by the window. I did the same, even though I was seething at him inside.

"Might as well wait for morning, maybe the knuckle heads in this place will notice we are missing and go find us." He said.

I didn't answer him and pulled the towel around me tighter, shivering from the cold.

"You ok?" He asked with concern.

"Fine." I said, not very convincingly. He grabbed my hand gently, warming it in his hand. I snatched my hand back quickly. He rolled his eyes,

"Alrighty then." He said. He closed his eyes to rest and I tried to do the same. But I was so angry inside. At him and at myself. Why would I give him a kiss? I didn't even want to give him one, and he didn't want one from me. Those times had passed.

_I needed to breathe for a second. I leaned against a cold, stone pillar and looked at the palm trees, all stringed with lights for the dance. Paul came up beside me,_

"_What happened back there? You kind of ran off." He asked._

"_I, uh…" I said. I didn't know what to say. That kiss… that kiss was amazing. I really felt something for him back there… I didn't like where this was going._

… …

"_Paul!" I yelled in panic._

"_You know you like it…" he whispered into my ear. I KNEW I did but I also knew that I loved Jesse so I just couldn't do this with Paul…_

… …

"_Suze I really like you okay? So stop screwing around." He said his own voice wavering in between hurt and anger. I just looked at him and then started to walk away but he quickly grabbed my wrist and pulled me into a forceful kiss, his emotions so sporadic, I tried to push away and we both ended up falling sideways in the pond sized fountain..._

I awoke with a start. I had been dreaming of the Winter Formal dance from over two years ago. I looked around the room, the beautifully tiled pool room at the Willow's estate.

Paul was sleeping peacefully near me, his head against the wall. It was still dark outside, not too much time must have passed. It was now raining pretty hard outside, I felt it on my hand as I stuck it out the window. I could see it fall on the skylight roof, it looked memorizing.

I was bone achingly cold though. I looked down at the thin fabric of my dress, it was still damp. I remember reading about small incantations in one of my old shifting lessons. Little things like creating small sorts of energy like fire, gusts of air, inner power and moving small objects. There was something about inner heat and I was hoping I could remember it well enough to work.

I closed my eyes and imagined a small fire erupting within myself. I whispered the words to myself quietly. Nothing was happening but I concentrated on it for a while, surprising myself when I felt a pump of warmth spread throughout my body.

I opened my eyes, but found Paul looking back, his blue eyes looking onto me; he was mouthing the incantation as well. He was the one who had created the heat power.

I felt disappointed in myself that it had been him not me, but surprised that we had woken and done that for me.

"If you practiced more you could do that yourself." He said, looking into my eyes.

"Thanks, I guess." I muttered. We sat in silence, only the sound of falling rain.

"Why did you do it?" He asked, breaking the silence.

"Because I was cold. I don't know, I thought I could remember it from one of our old lessons but obviously I suck at it." I said.

"No. The kiss." He said lightly. I couldn't look into his eyes anymore so I looked down.

"It was a mistake." I said. "_Obviously. _I think I was caught up in old memories and it just sort of happened. But… I don't feel that way. I'm not… that girl anymore." I tried to explain. "We've grown up since then and I think I had a second in the past. It was ridiculous." I said with half a laugh.

He looked troubled, like he was thinking to himself.

"I'm sorry." I admitted, shamefully. "It was honestly so random. But it means nothing. You know?" I said. He nodded,

"Nothing." He repeated.

"Anyways," I said, standing up and rubbing my arms. The warmth was losing fast. "I think we should try this window again because I can't sleep like this." I said. He nodded and slowly got up, his face was still troubled.

I pulled at the window with no success.

"Maybe we should both try the whole shifter thing on it… maybe with both of us, it will work?" I suggested and he shrugged. I wasn't used to Paul being so quiet but I ignored him and concentrated at the window.

I repeated the incantation of moving objects and tried to force shifter energy on it. It budged and Paul pulled on it physically as well. It opened enough for myself to squeeze through it but Paul could not. It was dark and raining out, cold and hard on me.

"I'll just run in the house and open the pool room for you?" I suggested.

"Be careful Suze." Paul said. I swear the second he finished saying it I was flung back fifteen feet, on my back, on the cold ground, the air knocked out of me.

I gasped for breathe and heard a giggle before closing my eyes to the dark rain.

o0o

I opened my eyes again to someone shaking me. I let out a blood curling scream, holding my arms up defensively to anyone who might be attacking me.

"Suze! Suze, it's okay!" I heard Paul's voice as he cradled me in his arms. The rain was beating down hard on our bodies.

"What happened?" I asked, still too weak to get up so I remained on the ground.

"Gwen." Paul said. "I saw her for a second before you were blasted back. She left before I could get to her." Paul said. I glanced over to the window that I had slipped out of and it hung on its hinges. Obviously Paul had gone a little psycho on it to escape for me. Paul looked towards the window and shrugged,

"Didn't know what else to do. I thought you were a goner." He said, and I noticed the worry in his face. "Are you okay? I don't think anything is broken." He said, examining me. I felt a flush of embarrassment as my dress clung to me.

"No, I'm fine." I managed to sit up. I tried to stand but my legs were shaking so bad so he held me to him. He pulled me up and I leaned against him, but I couldn't walk.

"I'm sorry Suze!" Paul yelled above the loud rain as it fell. "I never should have let you go!" He yelled. I wasn't sure what he was necessarily referring to, I'm sure it meant 'out the window' but I nodded.

I couldn't walk so he scooped me up in his arms like I was as light as a rag doll and carried me to the front of the house. He managed to get us both inside.

He dematerialized us to the second floor, to one of the large bathrooms. He sat me down on a chair and started to run the massive bathtub with hot water.

"What are you doing?" I rubbed my head, now with a shifter headache.

"Running you a bath, you're shaking, your lips are blue. You might have hypothermia." He said, turning to me. "Incantations of heat only last so long, this will help." He said.

"Im fi-" I began but he cut me off with a wave of his hand,

"You're not fine." He said. I didn't bother arguing. I was so drained from being blasted back from Gwen, and so, so cold. He added bubble bath and soon huge bubbles took over the whole bathtub.

"Get in." He instructed. I could barely stand so he walked over and stood me up. He slowly began to pull down the zipper on the back of my dress.

"Paul..." I said in slight alarm but was too tired to really do anything about it. His hand felt so warm against my frozen skin as it slowly moved down my back, unzipping the dress.

"Don't you worry, I'm not going to look Simon." He said. He gave me a towel and I stepped out of my dress and into the towel, wrapping it tightly around me. He helped me into the tub, I glared at him and he smiled, turning his head away, covering his eyes with his hands so I could throw the towel away and slowly seep into the warm water.

I made sure the bubbles covered me completely before coughing so he knew he was safe to look.

"Feel any better?" He asked.

"Mmm, yes." I admitted. "Thanks." I said. It did feel really, really good.

He sat on the side of the tub, keeping a slight eye on me in case I passed out or something, and we chatted surprisingly easily about the trip thus far. The Grande Matre hotel, the Willow's estate, Dullsdrin and such. It felt good to for once have a relaxed conversation with him.

He gave me my towel again with no peeking, I made sure, and dematerialized us so we were in my room. I shuffled into bed, in my towel, too weak to change and it felt amazing to be lying in a soft bed.

He hopped on the bed and laid leisurely over top the sheets, his hands behind his head.

"Go away now Paul." I said, giving him side eye.

"Can't let you fall into some hypothermic coma now can I, Suze?" He said. I rolled my eyes at him, but I turned over, facing him, making sure the covers were, well, covering me.

"What do you really think about this. About all of this?" I asked. I watched his face in the darkened room, he looked thoughtful for a moment,

"Well, talking to ghosts and letting them 'move on' was never my sort of thing." He said, and I nodded, it definitely was not his thing. He was more of a threaten and shift into oblivion sort of guy.

"But, it was been a growing experience." He admitted. "I don't know, maybe Father D knows something or other." He said with a chuckle. "I'm enjoying it." He admitted. He turned to me, resting his head on the pillow. "More than I thought I would."

My eyes were feeling heavy with sleep. "Mmm." I agreed, drifting off.

"You?" He asked, staring at me with those light eyes of his.

"Can I tell you in the morning?" I managed to say, sleepily.

"Of course." He whispered.

So I slept.

o0o

I awoke with the sun streaming through my window, it felt good on my face. I stretched my arms wide and rolled over, my face hitting into a body. Startled, I moved back in the bed to see Paul, lying on top of the sheets, still in his now rumpled suit, sleeping nicely.

I felt panicked for a second. Why was he here? And WHY am I naked under the sheets! I almost screamed until the entire night before flashed back into my mind. The rain, the bathtub, the pool, the kiss. Ugh, the kiss. I felt a flush of embarrassment.

I made sure the sheets were up to my neck and I pushed Paul a little to wake him up but no go. I flicked him in the face, nope. I punched him hard in the arm.

"OW! What the fuck." Paul said with a start, waking up.

"Oh you're awake?" I asked with a fake voice. He glared at me.

"You need to leave." I said simply.

"Must have fell asleep." He said, yawning.

"Yes, now you need to go." I said, suddenly picturing Shannon waking up and trying to find Paul. "_Now_!" I hissed and pushed him.

"Okay, okay." He said with a laugh.

"Susannah?" I heard a voice and knocking outside my door. Jesse. Oh, shit.

"Uh… " I answered back unintelligently. Paul was laughing besides me.

"Shut up!" I said, hitting him.

"Are you alright Susannah?" I heard Jesse ask. "You disappeared last night. With these hostile spirits around, I was nervous something may have happened." He said and I felt bad. He had worried about me.

"No, no, I'm ok!" I said. "Really!" I pushed Paul hard out of the bed and he fell to the floor with a thump.

"Susannah?" Jesse asked, concerned, and walked through the door. "I thought I heard-" he began but stopped when he saw Paul getting up, dusting off his suit and me, pulling up the bed sheets.

"Just be leaving." Paul said, slinking by Jesse with a huge smirk on his face.

I wanted to kill him. He was leaving me in a horrible looking situation!

"It's not what you think." I said immediately.

o0o

"And what do I think?" Jesse asked, his face not very amused. His scar was white with anger.

"Um, I really need to get dressed, can you turn around?" I said, feeling awkward. Jesse's eyesbrows shot up.

"No, no, I'll explain. Wow, it seems bad. Just- turn around!" I said exasperated. Jesse turned around like a gentleman but I could tell he wanted to explode.

I quickly put on simple jeans and white t-shirt. I ran my fingers through my hair and flopped back onto the bed.

"Okay." I said and Jesse spun around.

"_What_ were you doing with that _vaquero_?" Jesse asked, clearly upset.

"Jesse _nothing_ happened. Believe me. I know it looks bad. We... got caught out in the rain last night. Sort of a long story but, I guess I had hypothermia or something. He was just taking care of me." I said.

"And that ended up with you, unclothed, in bed with him?" Jesse said, a little sarcastically.

"It does look much worse than it is." I said, moving from the bed and grabbing his hands in mine. "Believe me. It was nothing. We fell asleep." I said, looking into his eyes. He looked troubled but shrugged.

"I have no reason not to trust you _querida_, but... how you get into these situations is beyond me." He said.

"Me too." I said with relief.

I suddenly felt the presense of a ghost, other than Jesse, appear. I turned to see Jerry appear.

"Can you two be my new mommy and daddy?" He asked, pointing to us, holding hands. I dropped Jesse's hands.

"Um, what?" I asked, suprised by everything that just happened. Jerry laughed.

"Play pretend! You're my new mommy and daddy! Kiss!" He yelled.

"That's not how it works." I said patiently, trying to avoid Jesse's eyes. So awkward.

"It's pretend! You can do whatever you want." Jerry said stubbornly, putting his hands to his hips.

"Yes, you can." Jesse said, smiling good naturedly at the boy. "Why don't we play pretend out by the garden?"

"Cowboys and Indians!" He yelled enthusiastically.

"Sure." Jesse allowed.

"Suze are you coming?" Jerry grabbed my hand and Jesse's hand.

"Um, okay." I said. "But no more reappearing in people's bedrooms Jerry. It's rude." I said, thankful he hadn't been here ten minutes ago.

"Okay okay, _mommy_." He said and gave a toothy grin. "Hold hands!" He instructed. I rolled my eyes and grabbed Jesse's hand.

"Happy?" I said.

"Yes." He said simply and ran out the room at top speed, heading down the stairs. We walked after him, our hands still clasped together, heading towards the garden.

"What a strange little boy." I commented.

"He just misses his parents." Jesse remarked. I felt bad; I really missed my mom and even Andy after weeks of this but this boy hadn't seen his in sixty years.

We passed through the kitchen, a couple people were making stuff to eat, talking about last night. Shannon was sitting on one of the tables, her hair up in a pony, her eyes looking a little bloodshot and hungover.

"Where were you last night?" She demanded from Paul, who had changed into a dark green sweater which made his tan look golden.

"I must have passed out somewhere." He said. Sort of a half truth, I thought. They glanced at us as we walked out the back door, Shannon noticed our hands clasped together and pointed.

"At least someone got in on last night." She said with a smile, looking at Jesse and me. Paul grinded his teeth together, rolling his eyes at Jesse. I ignored them and pulled Jesse outside.

The fresh air felt amazing and cool, the overcast sky threatening to rain again, any moment.

We found Jerry racing acround with a stick in the backyard. There was many fields of land to play on and his imagination was running wild.

We played hide and seek for a while, Jerry would squeal wildly when we found him, behind a tree, behind a shed, wherever. Jesse would tickle him and throw him up in the air. It made my heart ache thinking of how he would have been such a good dad.

I wished more than ever in that second that he could be with us, the living. Not just for me but for him. To live his life. To be a dad. To be something.

I sat on the cold ground, pushing dirt with my hands. Jesse sat besides me, watching Jerry chase a bug.

"That's nice of you to come out and play with him Susannah." Jesse said. I looked at Jesse, tears brimming my eyes.

"I just want you to be happy!" I said, tears bursting forward. Way to have a meltdown Suze. I was so emotional, thinking about everything that had gone on in the past 24 hours.

"I am Susannah." Jesse said, looking shocked, whiping the tears from my face with his hand.

"Okay." I said, not wanting to talk about it any further. Jesse looked like he was going to say something but Jerry ran up.

"What's wrong mommy?" He asked.

"Nothing." I said, "Son." I added and then burst out laughing.

"Daddy makes it better." He said.

"He does." I said and grabbed Jesse's hand.

"Kissss." Jerry said.

"No, no." Jesse said with an easy laugh.

"Kisssssss." Jerry said, now annoyed.

"Jerry now-" Jesse began, but I cut him off with a quick kiss to his lips. Though it was fast, it felt nice and most of all it felt familiar. Like home.

"Yes!" Jerry said clapping, looking pleased with himself. Jesse blushed,

"Ah, ok, well, I think playing pretend is over." He said, getting up quickly. Jerry waved goodbye at us and vanished. I got up and followed Jesse as he was quickly walking towards the house.

"Jesse wait!" I said.

"You don't need to keep playing Susannah, the child is gone." He said.

"I'm not." I said, confused.

"If I want a kiss _querida_, I want it to mean something. I don't want to pretend." He said looking at me meaningfully. I didn't know what to say.

"Okay." I agreed and he managed a sad smile before walking away.

o0o

I stayed out in the garden for most of the day. I walked to the back fields, letting the sun hit my face. It was a warm day for fall weather. I touched the tops of the wheat, walking through the tall, golden fields. It was stunning. I needed the day outside, to be free, to think.

I touched my lips with my fingers, remembering the warmth on them. Had I really kissed Paul _and_ Jesse both in day? Not like that hadn't happened before... I thought grimly. Paul was a mistake, obviously. Jesse? I wasn't sure.

We had failed at being together, yes. We had been so wrapped up in love, so whirlwind and dangerously in love. I wanted to throw everything away, school, my future, for this ghost I loved. He was my bestfriend, I never wanted to leave. But was it fair to keep him here? To keep him in the land of the living just so I could have him by my side?

If that was why he was staying of course, I had no idea.

We had failed because we both knew, deep down, it would have to end. There was no clear future except I would grow old and he would never age. We would have no children, no wedding with families to watch. I would die. And he would live forever in sorrow.

Tears were brought to my eyes thinking about it. I had wished so badly he could be here, he could be alive. I had wished it every night, so, so badly, it hurt.

But there were other reasons. Something was holding me back. I had loved Jesse so fiercely, but some small part within was running away. I'm always running away, I thought.

The sun was slowly setting, turning the golden wheat field red, looking like it had gone ablaze.

I had been roaming around for hours, lost in thought.

I head back towards the mansion, nightfall slowly creeping.

The mansion was in sight when I heard a voice, startling me.

"They are wondering where you went. They are worried." Dean said, he was leaning against a tree. I sighed.

"Stop trying to scare me Dean." I said and he smiled, stepping towards me.

"You're fun to scare." He said, putting his hands in his pants pockets. He looked gorgeous as usual.

"They are all so... immersed with you." He said. "It's an odd obbsession. Though I can see why." He said with a wicked grin.

"Go away." I said, ignoring him and walked ahead.

"Now, now Suzy. Don't be cruel." He materialized right infront of my face. I gasped and stepped back.

"I don't have time for your games!" I said in annoyance.

"So locking you up in the pool room was not fun I take it?" He asked.

"No, that was annoying." I grumbled, crossing my arms over my chest.

"It gave you alone time with 'blue eyes' there." He said in reference to Paul.

"So? He isn't exactly my favourite person you know." I said.

"Isn't he?" He said with a laugh. I felt my cheeks turn pink.

"Is he better at kissing you, or am I?" He asked and my mouth dropped.

"Stop spying on me!" I yelled.

"I never saw you two kiss, I was kidding... Good to know." He said with an amused laugh.

"I'm so glad I amuse you Dean, now go away!" I said angrily.

"Not nice Suze." He said, then grabbed my arm to bring me close,

"Ow!" I said, pushing him back.

"I didn't grab you hard, drama queen." he said teasingly.

"No, I'm a little bruised up because of your bitch of a sister." I growled.

"Gwen? What did she do?" He asked with with a smile playing on his lips.

"Never mind. Tell her she's dead. So to speak." I said. He laughed,

"Alright. I'd love to see what happens with you two in a room." He laughed.

"I'll sent her away for good Dean." I warned. His smile dropped.

"Don't threaten us Suze." He said, bringing his face close to mine. "I'm warning you now." He said, and with a quick peck to my cheek, disappeared.

I sighed and walked back to the house, everyone was putting dinner on one of the dinning room tables.

"Where were you?" Nate asked, flopping down on one of the dinning chairs.

"Walking around the back." I said. "It's a huge property."

"You should have told someone. Always running off on your own." Jesse said, sounding hurt.

"Sorry." I mumbled. I sat down, my eyes flicked to Shannon and Paul on the other side of the table. They were holding hands and she was giggling at something he whispered. I felt guilty all of a sudden.

"Buddy system!" She said in a sing song voice, mocking Mrs. Hackteur.

"Speaking of, Mrs. Hackteur and Father Dominic are coming back tomorrow so we should have some sort of evidence of work for them to present." Marcus said, sitting down besides Nate.

"Yeah, yeah." I said, rolling my eyes. Paul watched me curiously.

"Running away for hours on your own isn't smart Suze." He said. I wanted to smack him.

"I wasn't alone. Dean showed up." I said. And everyone looked at me.

"Nothing happened. He was calm." I said.

"Oh I'm sure nothing happened." Paul said, hinting to the kiss Dean planted on me last night. I wanted to smack him again. But no one took notice so I'm guessing he didn't tell anyone about our ghostly encounters last night.

Which struck me as odd because Paul usually was one to update the group about these things. Maybe he didn't want to explain it all because Shannon would realize we spent the night together, as innocent as it was, it still looked bad. Well, the kiss certainly did.

Aimee came into the dinning room, caring a large bowl of spagetti, Hannah with a bowl of salad and Daniel with garlic bread.

"Dinner is served!" He said in an italian accent, mixed with his own accent, sent us in gigglies. Dinner was amazing and I helped myself to thirds, I was starving after such a crazy past 24 hours.

It felt sort of good, looking around the room at our crazy little family we made together.

I decided I wanted to go to bed early, last night had been so exhausting and I think I was still recovering from hypothermia so it seemed like a good descision.

I helped Aimee and Nate with dishes before heading towards my room. I got to the second floor when Danny caught up to me at the top of the stairs.

"Suze," He said, lightly touching my arm. "You okay?"

"Fine." I answered curtly.

"You just seem... spacey today. A little stuck in your own head you know? And disappearing outback for hours? What's wrong?" He asked, genuinely concerned for me.

"It's nothing really. Just needed time to think. Needed space. We are all so cooped up in this house together, it's nice to get some breathing room." I said.

"Oh. Is it me?" He asked, his dark eyes with worry.

"No... no actually." Which was truthful. In all that was happening, I actually had not really thought about Danny at all as of late. Weird since he was the main sorce of drama not long ago. My trust in him broken as he hooked up with another girl. Not that he was necessarily mine to have only to myself but I had at least thought we cared about eachother more than friends with benefits right?

It hurt to think about now. And the fight between him and Paul. It was awkward for sure. But my mind had been so preoccupied lately with other things that I didn't even notice.

"Good to know." He said, breaking my thoughts.

"I'm just tired. I need to sleep it off." I said, leaning my body against the railing of the stairs.

"I would still like to talk to you sometime, about, everything." Danny said, looking down at me. "Things were left unsaid."

"I know." I said, thinking about how emotionally exhuasting that conversation was going to be.

"But I'll leave it for when you aren't trying to sleep right?" He said with a smile and I smiled back gratefully. He leaned forward and kissed me gently on the lips and I let him, too tired to really put up a fuss. It was just a sweet kiss that I didn't mind recieving anyways.

A bright spark lit between our lips and jolted both of us. What the-?

I touched my lips with my fingers and he did the same, our eyes wide.

"What?" I asked.

"Not sure..." He said, looking confused. "I guess there is still sparks between us." He joked.

"Yeah... goodnight Danny." I said, leaving him as I walked to my room.

I went to bed and my lips still tingled.

o0o

It felt so good to get so much sleep. I got up and took a long, hot shower, my body feeling stonger and almost back to normal. Normal for me, anyways.

I changed into a long sleeve, dark green, v-neck sweater and dark jeans. My hair was getting really long, probably due for a cut. I applied some makeup and felt refreshed.

I ventured out into the mansion, everyone seemed be sleeping in, or like Marcus, at the public library trying to come up with something to show Mrs. Hackteur and Father D as they were coming back later today.

This place had it's own library, filled with hundred of beautiful books. Even with it's own moving ladder to keep up. It reminded me of the library in The Beauty and the Beast. Though there was no photo ablums or information on any of the members of the Willow family in there, I descided to go inside.

I gingerly touched the books on the shelves as I walked by and admired the huge floor to ceiling window, outside the sun shine brightly.

I heard a cough and saw Paul sitting on a desk, reading a book.

"What are you reading?" I asked.

"Tolstov." He said back. I rolled my eyes at him.

"You like reading in the library early in the morning?" I said.

"It's peaceful." He said simply. I thought about my walk in the wheat field yesterday, to each their own.

I nodded and started to leave but his voice called out to me,

"You know what would be a good idea, to start the day?" He said.

"If you say 'sex with Shannon', I'm out of here." I said with a grimace.

"No." He said. "She isn't a morning person, she sleeps in." He added with a wink. Ugh.

"Shifter lessons." He said. I looked at him, my eyebrows raised.

"Really? Think those will go well again? Don't think so." I scoffed.

"Look Suze, it will be different. We've grown up since then. There won't be any tangos on my bed alright?" He said and I flushed with embarassment thinking about a couple of the times our lessons has ended with Paul and I wrapped up in eachothers arms. Keep in mind, this was before Jesse and I were actually dating, and had actually admitting to our feelings for one another.

The thing about shifting lessons, about shifting, was the chemistry it created. When two shifters, and all I had to base this off of was Paul, got together it... well it was sort of magical. Such power inside ourselves, when together and when using it together? It felt like nothing I've ever felt before.

Like a spark. Created between the two of us. It was why we had fallen into eachothers arms at the end of said lessons. And why I ended the lessons once Jesse and I confessed our love for eachother.

"I don't think it's a good idea." I said.

"It's called control Suze. We'll exercise it. And you need control on your powers as well. And to train them. What better than now, we are a part of MED and now is the time to train." He said matter o' factly.

"I'm open to it, I guess." I admitted. These powers inside of me. Keeping them dormant for so long was sometimes too much to bare. I needed to know. I needed to learn. Sucks he was the only one who could teach me.

"Good." He said with a winning grin.

We left the library, going to get something to eat before finding somewhere to train when I felt an amense presense of ghosts. One look at Paul told me he felt the same. I closed my eyes and felt it, and walked into a room to my right, it was a den of some sort with a goregous mahogony desk, lamp, book shelves, fireplace and carpets with probably the highest thread count.

The fireplace was roaring, angrily, on it's own. Ghostly anger.

We looked to see Aimee and Marcus, trying to talk to Gwen and Dean. I guess Marcus was done at the library, but whatever he found seemed to stir the ghosts.

"Stop looking into these matters." Gwen hissed at Marcus.

"It's our job to do so." He stated back, pushing up his glasses. Dean laughed,

"I could snap your back in a matter of seconds." He said, towering over Marcus who looked back angrily. I felt a whoosh of protectfulness come over me as I watched Marcus. There was no way I would let anyone touch the kid.

"L-look we don't want violence here." Aimee said, stepping back and grabbing Marcus to step back with her.

"How cute you are with your stutter and fear." Gwen said in a mocking tone. I hated her and I hated how her power and her flawless face was making Aimee shake with fear.

"I am going to break your face." I said to Gwen in a slow and dangerous voice. Gwen and Dean whipped around to face Paul and I.

"Really?" Gwen asked, a smirk on her face.

"That's a promise." I said.

"Suze, I told you to place nice." Dean said, his handsome face with a slow smile.

"Fuck playing nice Dean. If you two lay a finger on them, I will obliverate you both." I said.

"You did such a great job of that last time Suze. Didn't you end up flat on your back?" Gwen simmpered, talking about when she blasted me back in the rain. "And he had to save you." She pointed to Paul. "Didn't you two end up in bed together?" She said, with a smile on her lips. I stood there, mouth a gape.

Marcus and Aimee looked a little scandalized, Aimee was starting to blush.

"N-no." I said, sounding like an idiot.

"Don't try to insinuate anything possibly happened between us Gwen." Paul said smoothly, "You would only simply further to make yourself look like an idiot."

Gwen glared, stuck out her hand towards Marcus and he rose in mid air.

"An idiot?" She asked. Marcus was now upside down, holding onto his glasses.

"Put me down mam!" He ordered bravely. She giggled and twirled him in circles. Aimee stood watching in horror.

Next thing I knew I was slamming into Gwen with all my force. I didn't even know I had lunged at her until I hit her.

She crumpled and Marcus fell to the floor with a thump. Aimee screamed and ran over to him to see if he was okay. I got up quickly but was promptly blasted back with powers, by Dean. He helped Gwen to her feat and she brushed down her dress angrily.

Paul ran over to me and helped me up.

"I'm going to _kill_ you!" Gwen said with anger, and a window shattered instantly. I rolled my eyes,

"Get in line." I said."It goes around the corner."

Gwen ran forward put Paul raised both his hands, and both Gwen and Dean were blasted back. I ran up to Marcus, checking on him.

"He fell on his head, he is unconcious!" Aimee wailed, his head in her lap.

"Fuck, we need to move him out of here!" I said with worry. Dean and Gwen got back up but Paul knocked them down again with another boost of power.

"Fuck off!" Dean growled, radiating power and sending Paul crashing into a bookshelf.

Him and Gwen looked over at the three of us on the ground, Marcus knocked out of course.

"If you even step over here I swear to god I'll exorcise you away and Jerry can haunt this god forsaken house alone for eternity!" I yelled.

"I will tear you limb from limb." Gwen spat.

"That one goes around the corner too." I retorted.

Paul got up from the book shelf, groaning. Then I felt a another ghostly spector nearby,

"Hannah!" I screamed. She was close enough to hear, and ran through the door.

"What's happening?" She asked, taking in everything infront of her. Suddenly a knife went sailing from across the room, sinking straight into Hannah's chest. She gasped, grabbing the knife, blood erupting from her mouth. She collasped on the ground.

"Dad always kept one in his drawer." Dean said, smothing back his dishevield hair into perfect place.

I stared at Hannah's unmoving body in shock. She's a ghost, I knew she would wake up, remove the knife and heal, soon enough. But the whole thing left me a little tramatized.

He threw a knife, with skill, at a girl and piecered her heart, effectively killing her. If she had been alive. Did he even know she was a ghost? She had only entered the room for a second, not really enough time for someone to tell if she was a spectral matter or not.

"What did you just do?" I asked in shock towards Dean.

"If you won't play nice, either will we." He answered calmly back. Aimee started crying softly, holding Marcus's limp hand.

"Get him out of here." I told her. "Now."

She shakily got up and dragged him to the door. Me and Paul stood, facing Gwen and Dean, not taking our eyes off of them.

I heard Hannah gasp for breath, her hand shakily grabbing and removing the knife. Dean and Gwen looked over at her in shock.

They didn't know. They didn't know she was a ghost. They had tried to kill someone.

I emitted power from within me, the same moment Paul did, and it blasted them back into the wall, crashing over the large desk and breaking it.

Gwen shot energy at Paul the second he sent it at her and they were locked in a power stuggle. I watched for a second, and then the next thing I knew I was on my back, on the floor, the wind knocked out of me again. Dean was on top of me.

"I like this view of you." He said, with a cheeky smirk, looking down on me as he straddled me.

"Fuck you!" I screamed, not so eloquently.

He gave me a quick kiss on the lips and I wretched my head away.

"I'm going to send you to hell where you both belong." I said steadily. He laughed.

"You can say hi to your mom and dad there, will you?" I said with a bitter laugh. He stopped smiling.

The next thing I knew, his hands were wrapping around my neck and he was choking the life out of me.


	13. What the Heart Wants

Chapter 13: What the heart wants

o0o

I could get no air. No beautiful, precious oxygen that I had taken for granted all my life. Now it was gone.

I scratched and pulled at Dean's hands in a desperate fury, but he didn't budge. There was a murderous look in his eyes. He didn't care. They weren't messing around anymore.

Tears hit my eyes as I felt myself get weaker and weaker. Why couldn't I do anything? I was so damn useless. I was going to die because of me.

Dean was suddenly slammed off of me and on to the floor. Paul was on top of him, punching him in the face, blood was coming off on his hands with each punch.

I rolled away from them and gasped for air, my head dizzy and weak. Dean tried to dematerialize but Paul held on to him tight.

"Don't think so!" He said angrily, pushing Dean's face to the floor, and I heard a crunch of a broken nose.

Gwen blasted back Paul so Dean could get up. Fear hit me quickly and consumed me, scared he was going to come over and finish the job. But he ignored me.

He held his broken nose, gushing blood, and walked over to Gwen. She was holding her arm at a weird angle, it looked broken as well.

"We'll deal with them later." Dean said, glaring as Paul got up to his feet. Both ghosts dematerialized and the room got quiet.

"Cowards!" Paul said angrily. I still couldn't move, couldn't get up, and was hyperventilating when trying to breathe. Paul ran over to me swiftly, pulling me into a half sitting position.

"Woah, woah, just breathe Suze. Shhh, it's okay." He said, trying to calm me down.

"Paul-" I managed to say but it came out hoarse from Dean nearly crushing my windpipe. I caught a ragged breathe and tears burst from my eyes.

"It's okay." Paul said, holding me close and stroking my hair. "Just breathe."

I did as he said and slowed my breathing, relaxing into him.

"Suze?" I heard and glanced at Hannah, who was now fully recovered. "What happened?" She asked, looking around the destroyed room.

"Didn't have a good chat with the two." Paul said.

"He threw a knife at me…" She stated, sort of in shock.

"And tried to kill Suze too." Paul said, his voice hard. "I swear I was going to punch his face apart." He said with anger.

I pushed him away and tried to get up.

"You okay to stand?" He asked. I nodded; my throat too weak to talk much.

I stumbled a bit and he tried to catch me but I pushed him away. I didn't need him to keep being my damn saviour. As emotional as I was, as he had just saved my life, it was just too much. It was such a raw feeling, towards someone who does that for you. A tremendous feeling of love and gratitude and I didn't want that for him.

I called to Jesse in my head, pleading that he would come, and luckily he did.

"What happened?" He asked, the second he materialized. I stumbled over to him and he grabbed me, the same time Paul did, for support.

I pushed away from Paul again and into Jesse's arms. Paul's face looked confused and mostly hurt from my actions. But I needed Jesse to save me.

He didn't say anything, standing in silence, and I could barely speak so Hannah filled Jesse in on what she knew.

"We need to have a meeting." Jesse sighed with concern in his voice. "Let me first fix you up _querida_." He said, helping me walk out the room. I turned my head to see Paul looking back at me, a confused frown on his face. But I left anyways.

o0o

Jesse tried all he could to help fix me. He bandaged a wound I hadn't even known I had on my arm. He gave me medicine to sooth my throat. Even though it wasn't the 1800s anymore, all he did was as much as anyone could do.

But he couldn't really fix me. I was so messed up in my head, it would never heal. The life threatening injuries, like Dean almost chocking me to death, felt like nothing compared to what was going on in my head.

Not only had he choked me, but they had knifed Hannah. They had essentially killed someone. And they didn't care. This wasn't easy anymore. What if it had been someone else to walk in that door? Someone who had a heartbeat?

Danny could have. My heart ached a little. He had emotionally hurt me in the past but the thought of him dead wasn't making me happy.

Paul had saved me, again. I couldn't help but feel grateful and emotional over it. After the mistake of a kiss I blunderingly gave him the other night, it was all getting to be too much.

This was becoming such a complicated mess. I just wanted to go home.

The rest had decided to have a team meeting before Father Dominic and Mrs. Hackteur returned from California.

Aimee had taken Marcus to the hospital after his collision with the floor, thanks to Gwen, and he checked out okay. No concussion or brain damage, thankfully. He was still our little know it all.

We all sat in the library, where there was plenty of chairs and no presence of ghosts.

A few of us looked pretty miserable. Marcus had a bandage wrapped around his head from a cut that had broken across his forehead when he fell. I had my own bandages and my voice was hoarse whenever I spoke.

Paul had a bruise on his otherwise handsome face, and his arm was in a temporary sling to keep from the pain.

Hannah had healed quickly due to ghostly powers, but her face showed that she was truly scarred over the whole ordeal, and the same could be said about Aimee.

Nate was furious.

"We need to find them and exorcise them into oblivion!" He said, with more emotion than I've ever seen Nate, our resident surfer dude, ever have.

"It is against our orders and contracts to do so." Jesse said, trying to calm him down. I could see the brotherly protection in Nate's eyes as he stared at Marcus's head bandage.

"I agree, they could have killed a couple of you guys… they almost did!" Danny said. "Father D and Mrs. H aren't here, let's just do it and pretend we got them to move on."

"Sounds like a plan." Nate said.

"Gentlemen, no." Jesse disagreed. "We cannot lie to them just to get our way. We have to finish this the right way."

"You'll just let them stick around and kill one of us?" Danny said accusingly. "You may already be dead but we don't want to join you."

"That's not fair," I said, my voice sounding strained.

"I am angry at them too, I am just not letting it cloud my judgement." Jesse said, looking at Danny darkly. Danny backed off.

"I don't think I could lie to Mrs. Hackteur, she scared me." Shannon pointed out and many nodded in agreement.

"We will get the job done. There is no other way." Marcus said and Nate sighed in frustration.

"I won't let you get banged up again!" He said angrily to Marcus.

"This isn't about personal emotions." Pointed out Marcus. "You are compromising the job because of it."

"Because I can't see my little bro take another trip to the hospital!" Nate said in frustration.

"I was there, and it was horrible." Aimee said softly, "But I don't think we should be so risky either." She added, siding with Marcus.

"Let's just get rid of the lot!" Danny said, throwing his hands up in the air. "I'm tired of them, I'm tired of this little town and I'm tired of this house!"

"Who says an exorcising of them will be so simple?" Jesse countered. "It is still an incredibly dangerous procedure to perform. It usually never goes as planned."

"Maybe Suze's." Danny said with a laugh and everyone snickered.

"Hey, I'm pretty good at it!" I squeaked.

"It's something to consider." Nate stressed again.

They all fought over the decision for a bit and I remained quiet, not wanting to work my voice any further. Honestly I didn't really care about the answer. If we exorcised them, I could care less. It would be risky business, but no more risky than talking to them again.

I had been against it at first, a biding to Father D's rules, but after the whole choke out. Well, I could care less what we did.

I noticed Paul hadn't said a word the entire time, which was extremely unusual as he always had to butt his damn opinions in all the time. He was looking thoughtfully down at his hands, thinking.

Before I could figure anything out, the discussion had ended. Everyone has decided to stick to the job and not exorcise Dean and Gwen, especially because we also had Jerry to deal with. As protective as Nate was about his family, those ghosts were Jerry's family too and it wasn't fair to take them away from him.

But we also decided that we didn't want to tell Mrs. Hackteur or Father Dom about what had happened either. We knew they might pull the plug on this whole thing if it was too dangerous for us. We weren't ready for that yet. So it was our secret.

I left the meeting feeling emotionally exhausted. All I wanted to do was crawl into bed and forget about the day but it was nearing dinner and we wanted to get a good feast going for them when they returned.

I was helping Shannon make a spinach salad, but my mind was completely else where.

"Uh, you're putting ketchup in the spinach salad." She pointed out.

"Oh. Yum?" I said, shrugging.

"Oh move over!" She said dramatically, shoving me over and taking control. I rolled my eyes and let her, I was obviously useless in my state.

Marcus was adorably helping Jesse with making mashed potatoes. Adorably because his head bandage kept falling over his eyes and knocking his glasses off. Hannah would giggle madly ever time they did, and she would use her ghostly powers to pick them up when they fell, and plop them back on his nose.

Danny and Nate were at the grill, cooking up some steaks we had gotten fresh from the local market in town.

Aimee was making a homemade sauce for the steaks, letting Nate and Danny good naturedly argue over what's best to put in it.

I was sitting in the corner, useless, watching it all happen. Our little family making dinner together. But I felt on the outside right now. My emotions so conflicting. I wanted to pack up and leave it all so bad. Too many memories here and too many memories from the past just keep bubbling up. It wasn't healthy, it certainly wasn't doing anything for my sanity!

Was I the only one, darkly thinking all these thoughts? I wish I could just run from it, like I usually did. I never really truly faced my fears, my doubts, my problems. I sort of just ran. But I was trapped here and that wasn't going to work. But facing it all? Wasn't working either.

Where the heck was Paul? He was missing out on family time. He seemed to have a dark aura as well. Maybe I should go find him and we can be all emo together.

"Well isn't this nice to walk in to." Father Dominic said, walking into the kitchen with a grin on his face. He looked tired from the long trip, but he looked happy too, and grateful to us.

"We missed you!" Hannah said, and the rest of us chuckled.

"It's all wonderful." Father Dom said, "I'm sure Mrs. Hackteur would agree as well." He said and we all tried not to smirk.

"She'll say something, I'm sure." Danny muttered and we giggled.

We all came to the table and ate, some of us ravenously. Father Dom told us a little about his trip back to California. Meeting with some of the head officials of MED. Mrs. Hackteur wanted to know everything that went on here and we all got unbearably quiet.

We didn't have much to say, as in reality we didn't have much done other than partying and fist fighting so our silence was a disappointment to her to say the least.

Father Dom wanted to know why some of us were looking worse for wear, with the bandages and bruises and all. Danny quickly spun a story about us investigating a tree fort in the back fields and it collapsing from old age and rot on us. Father Dom scolded us for being so silly and we all gulped down our guilt of lying to a priest, with more food.

Eventually we all cleaned up and most of us headed to bed, after such an eventful day it was exhausting. I know I was.

Before I got to my room, Paul caught up with me in the hallway.

"You can't be off to bed already Simon." He said.

"I'm tired, so yes." I said, rubbing my sore throat.

"We have work to do." He stated simply.

"Okay Scooby Doo, calm down. We can ghost bust tomorrow." I replied sarcastically.

"What? No, not that. We need to train. You agreed to shifting lessons remember?" He said. I groaned.

"You're making me regret it already." I said.

"Come on, let's get it going then." He said.

"Look, I'm going to bed. We'll train in the morning." I said in annoyance.

"Suze, why wait we-" He began but I cut him off.

"Goodnight Paul." I said, shutting the door in his face and flopping into bed.

I was not looking forward to this.

o0o

_… … I walked up to Paul's glass house with many reservations. Why was I here again? These shifters lessons were really complicating my life. On the one hand, it was amazing learning about these powers I had. Powers that no one else knew anything about or had any information on._

_On the other, Paul was the one with all the information and I had to indulge him in a couple hours a week of him being my teacher. At least it kept his mind off of offing Jesse._

_Jesse didn't even know about our little arrangement. He knew Paul was living in Caramel and going to school with me now, but he didn't know about our little deal. I didn't want to make him jealous. Hah! Jesse jealous of us?_

_Jesse seemed to have zero romantic feelings for me, even though it was probably so obvious that I was head over heels for him. So obvious that Paul noticed and threaten to exorcise Jesse away if I didn't spend time with him._

_What kind of guy does that? Psychos. Yet again, I was feeling many reservations as I walked up to his glass house._

_But I walked inside with a sigh, walked up his cold steel stairs and walked into his bedroom to find him reading one of our shifter books. Well, trying to translate what he could anyways._

_We looked up from the book and a big smile broke on to his handsome face, his white teeth gleaming._

_"On time, perfect." He said._

_"Let's get it over with." I said rolling my eyes. I sat awkwardly on his king sized bed, grey sheets that complimented the blue ocean that was seen right out of his wall sized window._

_He sat on the bed, perfectly at ease as he showed me the text in the book._

_"Okay so I've been looking here at starting sparks and flames. It's all pretty basic and I think we should give it a go. I've pretty well mastered it years ago, actually by accident, sort of started a small fire in my old grade school." He chuckled._

_I looked at him, appalled._

_"No one was hurt…" He said, offended. "Anyways, I think it would be good of you to try."_

_"Fine." I said, turning to him. "So?"_

_"So… put your hands up, facing me. And I put my palms, facing yours. Now to do it yourself, you don't need to do this so much, but I have been researching and it seems that with multiple shifters, sharing the energy between them is a key way to really use the powers." He informed me._

_"Sure, sure whatever." I said._

_"Now Suze, you have to take it seriously." He said, grabbing my hands in his. I looked down at his strong tan hands, holding my small white ones so easily. My heart thumped a bit and I fought it down to a normal pace._

_"Okay." I said, removing my hands and starting again._

_We read the incantations out loud and worked with them in our heads too, only mouthing them eventually._

_Nothing was really happening._

_"You need to believe." Paul urged._

_"I do!" I said exasperated._

_"No you don't." Paul chastised. "Try it again. And believe Suze. Feel the energy pass between us. Feel it, feel the warmth in your blood and feel it tingle in your fingers. Believe in it."_

_As he was saying that, exactly that was happening. Suddenly sparks were igniting in between our hands._

_"It's working!" I giggled, not daring to move my hands away as sparks danced before us. It looked like we were holding sparklers in the night, but it was us, our powers._

_The rush one felt when such powers collided was over whelming. I could feel the warmth and the excitement, it was all so thrilling. I could see Paul felt it too, he had a huge smile on his face and his blue eyes were lit._

_He stared back into my eyes and eventually our hands were touching, the sparks stopped and the room went dark with night._

_The warmth in our hands spread to our whole bodies and it felt so good._

_The next thing I knew we were kissing._

_Passionately and furiously kissing. My hands were tangled in his dark blonde hair, and his were all over me. We fell onto the bed and he fell on top of me, gently trying to support his own weight, but consumed with me as well._

_Another reason why I feared our shifter lessons. The way it made us feel. You couldn't help but fall onto the other person, as such powers collide. It made you feel incredible and so connected with the other person._

_I had just wished that Jesse and I would feel this way. If only he knew of my feelings for him._

_I pushed away for Paul, my feelings of Jesse swooping in a stopping things, as they usually did._

_Paul ignored me, as usual. But I pushed him and swiftly rolled off the bed, pulling my hiked up dress down. Dear god._

_"I think we are done for today." I said, breathlessly._

_He grinned, lying on he bed, looking at me with a smug look. Ugh._

_"Are you sure?" He asked lazily._

_I glared at him. "Yes." I gritted my teeth. He was so damn smug that he could do this to me, make me feel like this, when he knew I just wanted it with Jesse._

_I stomped out of the room, angry that I let myself get like this. Again._

_"See you at school tomorrow!" Paul yelled as I marched down the stairs._

_Every time I swore we could have a normal lesson and every time, disaster. Thankfully we stopped having the lessons soon after that… …_

o0o

I awoke from having dreamt of my old shifter lessons with Paul from years ago. It made me every uneasy for many reasons.

I got dressed in black yoga pants and an old white tee, jogged downstairs and started munching on an apple, pacing back and forth in the kitchen. I couldn't keep still, keep calm.

My hands were sweating a little and it was hard to swallow. Was I really this anxious about lessons?

Yes. They were physically exhausting and emotionally? Wreckage. There were so many secrets I wanted to know, so many things I was eager to learn. But it was scary.

"You all ready?" Paul said, touching my back with his hand. I nearly choked on my apple.

"Woah. Sorry to sneak up on you like that… you seem a little tense?" He said, eyeing my up and down.

I was tense. But I wasn't going to admit that to him.

"I'm fine. My throat is just sore is all." I said.

"Alright." He said with a small smile. "So I found a good room we could use for our shifting."

"Lead the way." I said, in a bored voice.

"Get in the spirit Suze! It's going to be just like old times." He said with a wink.

I nearly choked again.

"Kidding." He added and laughed at my face. So… WHY did I agree to this again?

o0o

We got to a large room, mostly bare, with minimal decorating.

"Not sure what they ever used this for but it seems like a good spot. And you can't break anything valuable in here." He said and I stuck my tongue out at him.

There was a duffle bag on the floor.

"What'd you bring some ghost busting tools?" I asked sarcastically.

"Not quite. Just a couple of the old books and texts about shifting information. Random other stuff for lessons." He said.

"You knew you would need these things?" I said, gaping a him.

"When I was packing in Cali for this trip months ago, I thought we might get back to lessons." He said smugly.

"Only because I want to protect other people!" I exclaimed.

"To protect yourself Suze. Then focus on saving everyone." He replied.

"I don't see it that way." I shot back.

"And that's why you almost die in every situation." He pointed out.

"What! No I do not!" I squeaked.

"You're selflessness and bravery is admirable Suze." Paul said and I shut up, "But it's foolhardy and dangerous. You need to protect yourself before flinging yourself into danger. You're always trying to save someone and then somehow I have to save you."

"That hasn't happened that many times!" I said angrily.

"Yeah…" Paul said, trying not to laugh.

"Shut up!" I said and smacked him in the chest. He chuckled,

"Well now that you're all riled up, let's get going shall we?"

I only gave silence as my reply.

"So where shall we start…" He said thinking, flipping through one of his books. "Alright, why not try moving objects?" He said.

"Sure." I agreed slowly, getting anxious again.

"I think that if we really un tap your powers, awaken them, then you will be able to do all the old stuff I teached you, fire and energy moving and all that." he said.

"Awaken my powers?" I asked, trying not to sound sarcastic.

"Yes, see with shifters, we can train and train, but if don't awaken our powers inside of us, then it's all useless really. You did things in the past with my help, as shifter's powers together are stronger - but if you awaken them… you'll find everything a little easier." He said.

"So… why aren't mine… awake?" I asked.

"Because you won't. It's all you." He said simply.

"I tried at all our old lessons!" I complained.

"You weren't really. You were thinking of other things I'm sure." He said.

"W-what?" I asked blushing. Was he referring to how we always seemed to want to jump each other's bones during our lessons? That I was always starring at his perfect pink lips as he mouthed the incantations, or his strong hands holding mine?

"Jesse." He answered with monotone. "You were always thinking of Jesse, all hopelessly in love like a little puppy."

"Oh." I said. Jesse. Right. Hell, I was a hopeless puppy with Jesse, sure. But in our lessons? No, I was (to my own annoyance) thinking of someone else. But it was a relief to think that he didn't realize that. But sort of sad too.

I shook my head,

"Anyways, I'm focused now."

"Perfect." Paul said, smiling.

A little whiles later, we were sitting on the ground, facing each other, our palms of our hands facing each other too.

"Okay Suze, so you know the incantation now. So let's try practicing." He said, getting an old blue vase and sitting it beside us.

"Let's try moving this. I'll guide with you at first…" He said, touching his palms to mine. I felt a shiver ripple throughout my body. I wonder if he felt it too?

"Ready?" He asked. I could only whisper back,

"Yes."

We mouthed the incantation and I concentrated on the vase. It shook a bit but not much.

"Concentrate Suze." He said.

"I am!" I snapped.

"Not enough! Not to sound all Matrix or whatever shit on you, but clear your mind." He said. "Feel the power in you, flowing in you, in me, feel it."

I tried to clear my mind, it was damn hard with everything going through it considering the past few days. But I did.

The vase lifted and hovered in the air, getting higher and higher. I watched it in childlike wonder, giggling in a delirious happiness that I had accomplished it. I glanced back to Paul and found him starring at me, his face unreadable.

His eyes were so blue, so light and cold. It was impossible to know what he was thinking. Suddenly the vase fell and shattered on the floor, I gasped, having forgotten about it for a second.

"It's okay, there is a few around to practice with." He said swiftly and got up to get another one. There was a pile in the back corner of the room.

"Okay." I said, trying to calm my nerves down.

"You did great through!" He said with a broad smile, "But let's keep going at it whilst you're in the mind set."

And we did. We practiced for another two hours, lifting pots, breaking a few. We tried moving other objects like his books and an umbrella we found. I was getting the hang of clearing my cluttered mind, of only letting what I truly wanted in, as he had explained.

"It's all what the heart wants." He explained. "Clearing your mind is only as good if you are clear to what your heart wants. Let it all flow through you."

We worked for a bit longer until my stomach grumbled.

"Hungry?" He asked with a laugh.

"Maybe I should listen to what my stomach wants." I joked. "It's probably lunch now…"

"Why don't I run out and see if the rest has made anything to eat and I'll bring it back to you?" He asked.

"I can do it." I said.

"No. Knowing you, you will somehow get tangoed into some disaster involving Dean, Jesse and Danny in a turf war. We can't get you distracted right now. I'll go." He said and walked out. I glared at the door. He was kidding, sort of, but he was also sort of right. Annoying.

He came back with some sandwiches that the gang had made and we snacked in a weirdly enough, shared happiness.

"Did anyone wonder where I am?" I asked.

"Yes Suze, they are all weeping into their hands, wondering where you have gone." Paul answered sarcastically.

"Shut up." I said. "I was just wondering…"

"No, Danny isn't off going to kill himself over your disappearance. Everything is fine." he said shortly.

"I didn't ask about him." I snapped.

"You didn't have to. I can see it on your face." He replied.

"What's your problem with him?" I demanded.

"So many things." He dead panned. "But your lack of problem with him annoys me the most."

"What?" I asked.

"He cheated on you Suze. And a couple weeks past and what? It's all forgiven?" He said.

"We weren't even together!" I pointed out. "I mean, not officially. I don't know." I said hurriedly, "But that's my deal. Not yours."

"I was there that night Suze." He said. "I saw the hurt in your face."

"I'm all about second chances." I said.

"Are you?" He asked with a little spite. I don't think we were talking about Danny anymore. We glared at eachother in silence for a moment.

"We were young and immature." I stated, breaking the cold silence, and in reference to our tremulous past.

Paul didn't answer. God, speak about years worth of pride he was still trying to gain back.

"Can we get back to shifting?" I asked.

"Of course." He said. But the air in the room had changed. It was no longer hopeful and full of promise like it had been this morning. Now it was charged and hurt on both sides.

"You're doing it yourself." He said.

"What?" I asked in alarm. "Don't give up on me!" I said.

He chuckled,

"I mean, you concentrate on the vase yourself. No help from me."

"Oh. Yes, of course." I said in embarrassment. I looked at the vase and focused my energy on it. I tried to clear my head but now it seemed impossible. I was pissed he had brought up, (sort of), years ago. And why couldn't he friggen get over Danny?

The vase shook and exploded from my rage, shooting pieces everywhere.

"Woah!" Paul said. "Focus Suze!"

"I am!" I yelled at him.

"You're clearly not. You're using your abilities with anger. That's dangerous. Hard to control." he replied, getting another vase.

"You use yours all the time in anger!" I said defensively.

"I'm good at controlling mine Suze. You are not." He stated simply. I swore at him not so nicely under my breath.

"Again." He said. I stared at the new vase, trying to concentrate. But it was difficult to clear my head … …

… … _"Again!" Paul yelled, making me try to lift a pillow off his bed._

_"Stop yelling at me!" I yelled back, angrily. We were in his bedroom, our usual shifting lessons meeting ground. _

_"You need to concentrate!" He said, clearly irate with me. _

_"Maybe if you stop fucking yelling at me!" I said. He marched over and grabbed my arms. _

_"If you're not going to really try, then this is a waste of time!" He roared at me. _

_"I am trying!" I said exasperated. "Not my fault I have a psycho for a teacher!"_

_"Dammit Suze, clear your mind!" He argued. _

_"I am!" I said, wanting to punch him in the face._

_"Then what the hell is in the way?" He said in annoyance._

_"You!" I said angrily, trying to shove him back but he held on to my arms, pulling me. I was pulled into his chest and he held on._

_"Get off me!" I said shrilly._

_"No." He said simply, then placing both his hands on the side of my face, pulled me into a deep kiss._

_I kissed him back with fire, using all my anger and fuelling it into passion… …_

I was thinking of our old shifter lessons. I was breaking another vase.

"Dammit Suze!" Paul yelled at me. It was starting to mirror my memory.

"I'm trying!" I yelled.

"You're not!" He shot back.

"Fuck off! I'm doing my best!" I said viscously. He walked over and grabbed my arms heatedly,

"I know you!" He yelled. "You're not!"

… …_ My hands in his hair, his in mine. Kissing feverishly like we would never get enough. I wanted to give in so bad. Just let him have me. He wanted to have me. I wanted it too? … …_

I gasped at the memory. How could I had almost succumbed to him back then? I pushed at his arms on me,

"Get away!" I said angrily, I didn't want him near me. These memories were too fresh in my head. It was all too much.

"Listen to me Suze. You can do this." He said, staring at me in my eyes.

I stopped struggling and stared back at him. Staring into those cold eyes, letting myself let go. Let go of the memory. Clear your mind. We aren't kids anymore. Time to grow up Suze. I couldn't blame Paul for all my problems. Back then I had been so angry over Jesse and threw it all on him. And now, almost the same thing.

I stepped back and just breathed. I closed my eyes and let it go.

I opened them to find not just one, but all the vases had risen in the air. There were about twenty of them, floating around the room. Paul was standing, looking up at them with a wide smile on his face.

He looked back down and stared at me, with an accomplished smile. I smiled back, genuinely happy.

"I knew you could." He said.

"I just didn't know." I said.

I felt an immense release within me, almost escape out of me. It rippled throughout me. I let all the vases drop, they all fell, shattering to the floor, but in a beautiful way.

"W-what was that?" I gasped.

"You have awakened your powers." He said with a smile.

o0o

We ended the lesson on that good note and left the room to go find out what everyone was up to.

I ran into Danny almost immediately.

"Suze!" He exclaimed. "Where have you been?" He asked.

"Is something wrong?" I asked, worried all of a sudden.

"No, no, don't worry. I was the one worrying about you!" He said with a laugh, but his laugh was riddled with anxiety.

"Um, I'm fine." I said. "Shifter lessons with Paul actually." I nodded to Paul who was leaning coolly against the door frame.

"Why are you doing that?" Danny demanded. A little possessive are we there bud?

"Because we can." Paul answered childishly.

"Because it's good to get stronger at it. It will help us out with these ghosts." I said to him.

"Right." Danny said, but he was concentrating on something else.

"You okay?" I asked.

"Hmm? Yeah, yeah." He said, flashing his gorgeous smile, rumpling his dark hair in his hand.

"What are you doing around here, checking every room in the mansion for little Susie?" Paul asked.

"No." Danny said gritting his teeth. "I was…" But he seemed lost for words.

"Come on Danny, let's go see what everyone else is up to." I said, grabbing his hand and leading us away from this awkward situation. Paul rolled his eyes at me but I couldn't care less.

o0o

The rest of the day passed quickly enough. I was fairly drained from shifting all day so I was fairly useless in helping Nate and Hannah with ghost searching.

Mrs. Hackteur cooked us all a dinner of stuffed chicken (with spinach and four cheeses!). We were surprised she could cook so well, and actually wanted to cook for all of us considering it just seemed like she tolerated most of us, most of the time.

After dinner, most of us went to the games room to play some pool and cards, as Mrs. Hackteur and Father Dominic went to bed at their usual early time.

I was lazily drawing designs on one of the windows, the condensation from the foggy night and chilly air made it perfect.

"You think we could talk?"

I turned to see Danny looking at me with an anxious expression. He looked adorable in a white button down and fitted grey vest with jeans.

"Sure." I smiled warmly at him. He pulled me out of my chair and led me by my hand and out the room.

"Where are we going?" I asked, my eyebrow raised.

"Surprise." He said, with a small smile on his lips. He could easily ooze me with that darn accent, so I agreed.

He led me out the front door, and started heading around the house. It was very dark out, the fog was licking my legs.

"Um, Danny?" I asked. He had walked ahead quickly and I couldn't see him anymore, not with the intense fog.

"D-danny?" I said shakily. It was freezing out. Sudden thoughts of Dean or Gwen bursting out of the fog and attacking me, hit me. His hands around my throat…

"Danny!" I demanded into the fog. I walked forward quickly, trying to catch up to where he might be. I tripped over a rouge tree branch and fell to my hands. Fuck youuuuuu, I wanted to yell at the sky.

Suddenly, all was lit before me. I was standing before the old greenhouse they had out behind the mansion. The green house was lit with small white twinkle lights. It looked very… romantic actually.

"You like it?" Danny asked, walking out the front door grinning. "What are yeah' doing down there?" He asked and picked me up easily from the ground.

"Getting acquainted with mother earth." I said.

"Alrighty." He said giving me a weird look, and laughed. "Come in!" He said, opening the door and ushering me into the green house.

It was nice and warm in here. Not only that, but it was lit with the pretty little lights, making it look surreal and astoundingly beautiful with all the glass walls.

I looked down from the lights and gasped at an even more beautiful sight. Flowers. So many flowers. Every color and type, in rows, spurting everywhere from their pots, filling the greenhouse.

"Wow." I gasped. It didn't make any sense. Last time I had seen the place, from investigating the mansion on day one, the green house has been nothing but weeds and rot. Now it was breathtaking.

"How?" I breathed.

"I'm a regular old green thumb." He said jokingly.

"But… it was all dead… there was nothing!" I pointed out. "Did you plant them all?"

"Magic." He said, putting his arms around me and tickling my neck with his lips teasingly.

I giggled, and spun around to face him.

"It's beautiful." I said. "This would have taken you so much time and effort. I… It's really astounding."

"I just wanted to show you that I actually care for you Suze. I know it's been hard with… us. I'm more sorry than I can say about what happened. I'm… not one to really rush into feelings and all that with a girl." He tried to explain. "And I was absolutely bonkers for you! It was scary. So I acted like an idiot. I'm sorry."

I didn't know what to say. I was still hurt, sure. But I was also overcome with emotion for him. It was confusing.

We walked through the flowers holding hands, in a comfortable silence, I ooohed and aaahed over some of them. It felt like some weird little date together, which was what we needed.

We stopped at the end and I turned to him.

"Thanks for this, I needed it." I said and he smiled back at me. "I've been so… stuck in my own head lately. It feels good not think and enjoy myself." I said.

"What have you been thinking about so much?" He asked.

"Just… memories." I said.

"Ah." He said nodding.

"And a little of you." I said shyly.

"A little of me eh?" He asked, a smile playing of his lips as he wrapped his strong arms around me.

"Only a little." I said, looking up into his hazel eyes.

"Good." He said, resting his forehead against mine. "Good to know I'm in your head."

I looked down from his warm eyes to his lips. He slowly leaned in and kissed me. It felt good. We pushed a little deeper, his arms a little tighter and mine drew to him.

We started kissing more passionately, abet romantically, slowly. It was wonderful.

o0o

A little while later, I was back at my room, giggling as Danny kissed me on the nose goodnight. My cheeks were pink and my lips full from making out.

I hopped into bed with a good mood and a full heart. Too bad my sleep ruined that.

I was dreaming. I knew I was dreaming. But it was weird. Everything was so focused, so aware. I was in an all dark room. It seemed almost like Shadowland but it was not, as far as I could tell.

"Susannah." A voice rang out and I turned around but no one was there.

"Hello?" I asked. I had a feeling of doom upon me. Okay Suze, wake up now. Please?

"Susannah." The voice rang out again. It was a male's voice. It was dark and deep and no voice I had ever heard before. It was chilling and I instantly wanted to run. I had no idea why.

Suddenly a blinding pain hit my head. My brain. It was searing, white hot pain. I collapsed to the ground, holding my head in my hands.

"I see you." The voice said. And I woke up.

I awoke gasping for air. Just a dream Suze, don't panic. Just a dream. What was that voice? Who? It wasn't anyone I knew… not even any horrible ghosts I could remember.

Just a dream. Just a nightmare. But my head still hurt…

o0o

I tried to get through the morning the best I could, but it was hard to shake the feeling of foreboding that the dream had given me.

Myself, Marcus and Aimee had gone to the library for some same old story of research research research. Looking through old newspaper clippings on and on. Nothing. We are never going to leave here! Stuck in Dullsdrin until we become ghosts ourselves. Great.

By lunch, Paul had cornered me in the kitchen.

"Meet me in the training room for another lesson." He said.

"Really? Can't we rest a day?" I whined.

"Nope." He replied.

"Isn't Shannon annoyed with this?" I asked, thinking of how she didn't like to hear about Paul and my shared ability. I sort of understood where she was coming from with that.

"It's fine." He said curtly. I had the feeling he might have not told her about it, but I decided not to push him with that just yet.

"Fine." I sighed dramatically and followed him to the room.

We worked a bit on moving objects, but I was getting fairly good at it so we moved on.

"Alright Suze, so I wanted to try something tricky today." He said.

"I'm up for it." I said confidently.

"It's memory seeing." He said. All my confidence fell.

"What?" I asked, starting to feel prickly.

"You can view another's memories. See into their world of their past. It's very hard to control, it's very substantial and slightly random. But if used correctly, it's brilliant. I mean, I was reading about some of the history of this stuff. Back in World War II, they had some General shifters. They used this technique on the enemies. Seeing into their memories. They could see what tactics the other side was going to use…" he went on rambling excitedly.

I zoned him out, a lump in my throat. I did not want to do this. I didn't need him poking around in my past thank you very much. There were most things I was trying to forget.

"Even in some articles from centuries back! In ancient Egypt they would use it to predict outsets of the future because of the past. And-" I cut him off,

"That's great and all Marcus, oops I mean Paul, but I don't think so." I said.

"What? We have to Suze. Look, we need a challenge. Now that you've awakened your powers, things like moving object and creating fire, isn't all that hard."

"It sounds dangerous. Playing with the mind." I said.

"It's not contorting it. It's pulling forth memories that one could easily recall. It's not all that evasive." He said. "Look, it's the lesson. We're doing it." He said, pulling me down to sit on the floor.

I groaned but agreed, sort of. If any of this got too messed up, I was out of there.

"I've never done it before. Well, you are the only shifter I know." He chuckled. "I think until we have control, it will be random so… let's hope it's not too weird!" He laughed. I tried not to vomit.

"Okay, so I'll try it on you first. See how it goes, as I have the most experience." He said. I rolled my eyes.

"So, you need to be touching the person. It's best to get as close as you can. More touching, for longer the time, will give you the clear memory." He said, moving over to me.

I was feeling a little shaky now. "O-okay." I said.

He put his face close to mine, and I looked into his baby blues. Well this is oddly familiar. But fuck no I'm not kissing him. That's apparently only for pools.

He grabbed my hands in his. He closed his eyes and I did the same. He repeated the incantation to himself and I sat there, trying to clear my mind and not shake with nerves.

Suddenly, as if plucked from a bookshelf, a memory appeared, pulled from within me. We were both watching the memory in our heads. It was me at the beach with Ceecee and Adam. A sudden feeling of warmth and happiness spread through out me.

It felt like home. I could see he was feeling the same thing. He could feel the emotions of my memory? It was all so bizarre.

But the memory quickly washed away and I was disappointed we couldn't stay in it longer.

Another random one popped up, of me at school walking to my class, talking to Father Dom about some sort of ghost problem. My memory self, turns to see memory Paul walking to his class. A feeling of dread washes over memory me and we (regular Paul and me) both feel it.

I could tell Paul feels hurt over how memory me is feeling dread on seeing memory him. I wanted to move on from this awkward memory and I'm glad when it disappears quickly.

A sudden memory of Dullsdrin popped up, of myself, Shannon and Aimee doing our hair for the old Hollywood themed bash we threw for Hannah the other night. We are all happily chatting about girlish things. It was a good memory. There is a knock at the door and memory me, in my red silk dress, opens it to find Jesse at the door.

_"Querida…" he breathed, "You look beautiful."_ Jesse says and we hear him crystal clear. Memory me blushes and gets butterflies. I can feel it, and I can see Paul is annoyed with this memory, staring at Jesse with a bored expression.

Suddenly the memory is ripped away and replaced with a new one. We are in the greenhouse. The one that Danny had repaired for me. With all the stringed lights and flowers. No. He doesn't get to see intimate moments! How do we stop this?

Memory me and memory Dan are talking,

_"What have you been thinking about so much?" He asked._

_"Just… memories." I said._ Oh great, this is so fucking ironic!

_"Ah." He said nodding._

_"And a little of you." I said shyly. _How do we stop this? Stop using your powers Paul!

_"A little of me eh?" He asked, a smile playing of his lips as he wrapped his strong arms around me._

_"Only a little." I said, looking up into his hazel eyes. _

_"Good." He said, resting his forehead against mine. "Good to know I'm in your head."_

I know what happens next. It only happened last night. I see Paul face as he watches. Memory me looking deeply into Danny's eyes, looking at his lips. It's weird for me to see memory me doing this though. Looking at Dan with such hope in my face.

He leans down and plants a soft kiss against my lips. And slowly, seductively, we kiss. STOP! I want to scream. I don't want Paul watching this! This isn't his to watch.

Feeling my elation from the kiss, hearing the sighs from my mouth, seeing as our hands curve up each others bodies and we kiss on and on, more passionately.

Fuck! I needed to escape this! I focused my energy and blasted him back, away from me. Which only in turn just wakes me up from whatever we were in.

His eyes snap open as well, he steely eyes gaze at me with flashes of anger.

"Well… that was interesting." I say coughing. "Hey, it worked though!" I exclaim. "Pretty crazy stuff."

He glared at me in silence.

"So… my turn on you then?" I said. He keeps glaring.

"What the fuck is your deal?" I spit out defensively.

"Really Suze?" He said and the anger in his voice is evident. "Back with Danny already?"

I'm taken back.

"No?" I said.

"So what the fuck was that then?" He demands.

"It's none of your business." I shot back. "Not my fault your scrambling around in my head!" I said, now angry. "I think we've had enough of this shit."

He made me do this crap and now he's being a baby!

"It's pathetic really." Paul said, following me out the door. "How you just run back to him in a second."

"Fuck you!" I faced him and yell. We stand in a heated silence and glare at each other like angry dogs.

"You don't know anything." I said, and stomp off immaturely. I hear him swear and leave in the opposite direction.

Great lesson. Not.

o0o

Come nightfall, I was drained and still angry. I needed the freedom and happiness I had yesterday so I go to find Danny. I wanted to get back to yesterday. Back to the good lesson with Paul. Back to the romantic night. So I drag Danny back to the greenhouse.

"Couldn't resist me eh?" He joked as he runs his hands up my sides, tickling me.

"Oh please!" I giggle. "I need an escape!" I said.

"Whatever you say!" He says teasingly. We get to the back and to the greenhouse and it immediately looks wrong. We walk inside and it's destroyed. All the flowers, burnt, twisted, uprooted. The lights ripped down and broken. Several glass planes, shattered.

"What?" I gasped. Everything, all his hard work, our special place, ruined.

Danny looks stonily at everything.

"How? Who?" I said, my eyes wide.

"Don't know." He said.

"Gwen? Dean?" I said.

"Probably a good guess." He said.

"I'm sorry. You worked so hard!" I said with sadness.

"Aw, it's okay Suze. Don't worry." He wraped his arms around me, kissing the top of my head. We walk back, dejected, around the other side of the house.

Then we see Paul, leaning against the far wall, using an outdoor hose to wash his hands, and running his hands threw his hair, looking exhausted.

"What are you…?" I ask but trail off. Looking at his hands, which are covered in dirt and... cuts?

"You…" Danny said, dropping my hand. "It was you."

Paul looked up, eyeing both of us.

"Me what?" He asked tiredly.

"You destroyed the greenhouse!" Dan pointed out.

"You're little love shack?". Paul said with a laugh.

"Fuck you! You can't stand to see others happy is it?" Danny demanded.

"Like I could care enough." Paul retorts. "About your specific happiness, no."

"I know it was you." Danny said dangerously.

"Oh really? Good luck with that." Paul says easily and starts walking away. But then Danny lunged at him. … Oh, crap.


	14. The Past is Present

**Hey my lovely readers and reviewers, **

**Thank you for keeping up with my story and encouraging me to write more. It inspires me to continue and it's always great to hear some feedback! **

**This is a big chapter for you, to make up for the slow updates!  
**

**Some of these memories from Suze and Paul's 'memory sharing' shifting lessons, are from earlier chapters. If you forget all what happened, or the flashback are confusing, then just refer back to them! (chapters 2 and 3, primarily, I think.)  
**

**Now, on with chapter 14...  
**

**Fox xx**

* * *

"I know it was you." Danny said dangerously.

"Oh really? Good luck with that." Paul said easily and started walking away. But then Danny lunged at him. … Oh, crap.

Chapter 14: The Past is Present

o0o

Danny lunged at Paul and grabbed two fistfuls of Paul's button down shirt, drawing him close.

"I'm not letting you get away with this Slater!" he growled. Paul pushed Danny off of him,

"You are as delusional as you are pathetic." Paul spat back angrily. Danny shoved Paul back,

"Fuck you! It was you. We all know it." Danny said.

"Like I already said, I could care less." Paul drawled lazily.

"Of course you care!" Danny yelled, "You just can't stand me and Suze getting closer."

"You're ridiculous." Paul laughed, "You two deserve each other." He said in a mean way, flicking his cold eyes to me.

"It is suspicious Paul..." I said.

"Damn right it is!" Danny said. "You can't stand to see her happy with me!"

"Agian, why would I care?" Paul asked, and I was thinking the same.

"You are in love with her!" Danny roared.

Everything got silent.

My eyes were wide,

"I don't think that's the case." I sputtered. Paul was definitely not in love with me, for several reasons and to me, that was clear.

Paul burst out laughing meanly and raised his eyebrows sceptically at Danny.

"Really? Been there, done that. You can keep her." He said. Ouch. My pride and feelings were hurt, but thanks.

"You made your point Paul." I said, a little angry that he was so callous about me.

"You don't fool me." Danny said, still standing his ground.

"Oh I don't?" Paul asked, amused.

"You don't." Danny said, his hands turning to fists.

"Look, let's just call it a night..." I began, noticing that the tension between them was not going to go away.

"Yes, you have a lot of flowers to re-plant, better get to it." Paul said, smiling.

Danny threw a punch as quick as lightning, hitting Paul in the jaw.

"-the fuck!" Paul yelled, grabbing his jaw, his eyes wide with rage.

Paul lunged at Danny, grabbed his shirt and winded up to take a swing at him but I had had enough. I used my shifter powers and blasted them apart with energy. They both landed fifteen feet away from each other, with an "OOF!" as they hit the ground.

"Enough!" I yelled in annoyance. "This isn't going to accomplish anything."

The boys got up fairly quickly.

"But Suze-" Danny began but I cut him off,

"We have no proof Danny. I just... stop fighting." I said, rubbing my aching head from using shifting powers.

"At least our lessons are going to good use!" Paul said with a wink. Ugh, I wish _I _had punched him instead.

"I'm going to bed." I deadpanned and walked away.

Danny caught up with me fairly quickly,

"I seriously cannot stand him Suze." He said darkly.

"I get it, I do. But we need to be the bigger person in this." I said. "And we don't really know if it was him."

"It was." He said. "He can't get over you."

"Danny, Paul's moved on. And so have I. Trust me on this." I said. He remained silent on the way back inside, he was so stubborn.

"I'm going to bed, I'll see you tomorrow okay? Don't go chasing after him please." I said.

"I won't" He chuckled. "But only because you asked nicely."

I smiled back at him and kissed him lightly on the lips.

"It really was beautiful while it lasted." I said, and headed off to sleep.

o0o

I didn't sleep well. Dreams of broken greenhouses and drowning in pools filled my head. Nightmare after nightmare, I awoke in a sweat every time only to lull back into another one.

At one point I was standing in the beautiful greenhouse, when it was still intact, lights twinkling and flowers bloomed. Then the windows started to crack, the flowers slowly started to rot and the lights burst into darkness one by one until I was left in nothing but blackness.

The same eerie blackness from my dream the other night, with the same voice…

_"I see you."_ the same dark voice said again.

"Then come get me!" I snarled, trying to sound brave.

A thunderous laugh came back at me.

_"Is that a challenge?"_ the voice asked teasingly. It chilled me to the bone.

"Come and see then." I said, gritting my teeth and staring into the darkness.

_"I will end you."_ It answered in amusement.

"I'm not afraid." I retorted. But I was. Something about this was not right. My bones were chilled and my heart was hammering. Something was telling me to run. It took most of my courage to stand tall.

_"You should be, little lamb."_ The voice said, and a sudden pain hit my head like a knife plunging into my skull. It was like the most horrible of migraines. I tried my best not to scream, but I fell to the floor with the weight of it.

_"You are no match for me. My little lamb for the slaughter."_ The voice said almost soothingly, babying me.

"You don't know me!" I screamed, trying to get up.

_"I see you."_ the deep voice said before I woke up with a gasp. My head throbbed again.

o0o

I took a long hot shower and scrubbed extra hard on my body, willing the chills to go away. I was getting sick of the nightmares.

I got dressed in blue jeans and a pink v-neck sweater, hoping to up my mood. My dark hair was long and wavy, my green eyes were shiny. But even good makeup was not able to hide the darkness under my eyes from lack of sleep and stress. Or the faded purple marks on my throat from Dean's attack.

I slumped downstairs to go find something to eat, barely talking to anyone I made contact with.

I ate quietly in the corner, Aimee was sitting nearby and reading a book cheerfully, which suited me fine because I was in no mood to talk to anyone.

Shannon, Paul and Nate were sitting at a table laughing about something or other. I got up to clean up my things when Paul called out to me,

"Hey Simon! Lesson later?" He said, putting his arm around Shannon in a relaxed manner. Shannon grimaced slightly and moved out of his grasp. She looked a little off put, probably a little pissed that Paul and I were even having shifter lessons to begin with but I'm sure Paul reassured her it was for the good of the team.

Still, she looked annoyed and I was tired. Plus I had my suspicions about the greenhouse too and didn't really want to spend any time with him. I looked to his hands, which were now dirt free but still had little cuts on them.

He glanced down to what I was looking at, and looked back up to me, glaring. He was daring me with his eyes to ask him. Confront him about the greenhouse so he could argue me. Well, I was too tired for that crap.

"No, I'm good today." I said, faking a smile at him. He saw right through it, of course.

"Yeah, right. I'm finishing up breakfast now, let's go." He said, getting up from the table.

"She said she was good Paul. You tire her out." Shannon said, grabbing his shirt. "I mean, look at her under eyes. You can tell." She pointed out, and I touched my dark eyes insecurely.

"I think she looks great!" Nate said, brushing his shaggy hair out of his eyes. I gave him a grateful smile.

"I'm busy anyways." I lied quickly.

"Doing what?" Paul asked, not buying it for a second.

"Uh… Jesse!" I said, seeing Jesse walk by with Marcus.

"Doing Jesse?" Paul asked dryly and Nate chuckled.

"Yes! Wait, no! I'm investigating today with Jesse." I said, grabbing onto his arm and pushing him out the kitchen before he could even speak. "Mrs. Hackteur's orders! Later!" I said and quickly ran out with a small laugh.

"What are we doing?" Jesse asked in amusement at me.

"Escaping Paul." I said with a smile, leading him away.

"Sounds like a plan Susannah." Jesse said with a laugh.

We walked around the mansion leisurely, it was nice just to spend time with Jesse. Yet again I was letting my head and time fill with other people, like Danny, and it was nice to spend time with my best friend.

Things weren't exactly clear with us, our relationship I guess, or feelings? But it was more clear than anyone else in my life.

We ventured into a playroom where there was old toy blocks, a little slide, books of all natures and little tinker toys and teddy bears. I guess this was the kid's old toy room.

Everything had a thin layer of dust on it. It was depressing, but there was a huge window looking out into the sunshine outside so it was nicely inviting in a way too.

Jerry showed up as if on cue, running to some blocks and grabbing them to play.

"Hey Jerry, those are some cool blocks." I said warmly. He looked over to me and smiled a toothy grin.

"Thanks." He said proudly and kept playing. Jesse and I sat with him as he was building a house.

"So, say you were building _this_ house." I said, "And… these teddy bears lived here." I grabbed a couple stuffed bears. "There would be you…" I grabbed a little bear and fluffed it against his face and he giggled. "And Gwen," I said carelessly throwing a teddy bear behind my shoulder. "And Dean," I said, strangling a bear until Jesse took it away from me with a frown. "And mom and dad bear?" I asked, giving him two bears.

"Yeah." He said, taking the bears and gazing at them, thinking hard.

"So where are they? Do the play with you?" I asked soothingly.

"No." He said putting the bears down, knocking his blocks down in frustration.

"Why?" I questioned.

"They can't. They aren't here." He mumbled.

"Where are they?" I asked.

"In hell." He answered simply.

I tried not to gasp and Jesse looked at the boy in concern.

"Why would you say that Jerry?" Jesse asked.

"Because…" Jerry said, fidgeting with his shirt. "Dean and Gwen said so."

"Well don't believe them!" I said exasperated. "They are complete idiots!"

Jesse shot me a look, "Maybe they are confused." He said nicely.

"No. Pastor says it too." Jerry said.

"What?" I asked. Jerry sighed like this was all so boring and taking time out of his playing.

"Pastor said! They killed themselves and so they went to hell. If you kill yourself you go to hell." He explained to us the best he could.

"Jerry, I don't think it works that way…" I said. "Trust me, I'm a mediator. I don't think the afterlife, or whatever it's going to be, works so black and white."

Jerry shrugged. "As long as they are together. They kept fighting and but now they are together." He said.

"Why were they fighting?" I asked.

"Grown up stuff." Jerry said shrugging. He raced over to play with old toy soldiers in the middle of the room.

"Maybe we should stop pushing him with questions." Jesse said, looking at Jerry sadly.

"But we are no where without any other evidence." I said. "I don't like it either Jesse but we can't stay in this mansion forever! One of us is really going to get hurt or worse. Dean and Gwen won't stop."

Jesse nodded his head in agreement but remained silent.

I walked over to Jerry and sat down, cross legged, looking at him play. I picked up one of the metal toy soldiers, admiring it.

"This is pretty cool." I said smiling.

"Really cool." He said. "My grandpa gave them to me."

"My step brothers had some toys like these." I said, thinking of Dopey and Sleepy's old army toys they had packed up in boxes. They didn't play with them anymore but I'm sure they used to when they were Jerry's age.

Though I'm sure Jerry's were much older, considering they were his grandpa's, and Jerry was a fifty year old or so ghost, though he was forever like, five.

"You have brothers?" He asked, his eyes wide in question.

"Yes!" I said. "Three!"

"Do you like them?" he asked. I laughed,

"Sometimes, sure. Sleep, Dopey and Doc. That's what I called them. Oh never mind, that was after your time." I said.

"I know Snow White." Jerry giggled.

"Snow White and the Seven Dwarves is from the 1800's." Jesse said to me. "The Disney movie came out in 1937. Disney? Is that how you pronounce that? Disney?" he said to himself.

"Uh, yeah, well they are dwarves alright!" I said and Jerry giggled.

"What about your siblings?" I asked.

"Umm, they are okay." Jerry said. "They used to be fun. But now they are boring. And angry all the time."

"Why?" I asked.

"Who knows." Jerry sighed dramatically. "Mom mad, Dad mad, sister and brother mad!" He said.

"You can't remember?" I asked.

"No." He said, and continued to play. I sighed and let him at it, I didn't want to push him any further and he clearly didn't know.

I walked over to Jesse.

"Well it's not much but it's something." I said, shrugging.

"Yes _querida_." He said smiling warmly.

"I need to get out of this house." I said. "Want to walk around town with me?" I asked.

"You will be talking to air, to others, you know this yes?" He asked with a laugh.

"I don't care." I said defiantly. He smiled at my gratefully and we turned to say bye to Jerry.

But Jerry was gone and his toys were back in the same positions as when we came in, a thin layer of dust on all of them.

o0o

A couple hours later, Jesse and I walked back into the front doors, smiling broadly and happily. We had spent a great day walking around town, trying local food (well, I was eating it and he was laughing at me mostly) and enjoying each others company.

We had ran into Marcus, Aimee and Hannah at a small outdoor restaurant and I filled them in on what little I had gotten out of Jerry.

Marcus seemed to think it was very important at least. He explained that perhaps why we weren't finding any information on the sprits in the old newsprint we were researching in, was because perhaps the small town a had looked down upon suicide as blasphemy and destroyed any records of the family, at least back in the day.

So what could we do? We needed more answers somehow.

I needed to talk to Paul, of all people, so I gave Jesse and quick hug and left to go find him.

Him and Shannon were playing pool in the games room.

"Working hard?" I asked sarcastically.

"And you were?" Paul asked, helping Shannon with a shot as she giggled gleefully.

"Yes actually." I said briskly. "I need to ask you something though."

He stopped playing and looked at me, his eyebrow raised.

"Well this is a first." He said. "Admitting you need help."

"Oh Paul, stop being a brat." Shannon said, rolling her eyes playfully and plopping her tiny butt down on a couch.

"Alright Simon, shoot." He said, flashing a smile.

"The whole… mind melding thing. Memory sharing." I said, glancing over at Shannon as she played on her phone. "You _know_." I said. I didn't know why I was being so cryptic but the memory seeking shifting thing seemed so personal that I didn't really want Shannon getting all jealous or whatever over it.

"Yes? Round two?" He asked.

"No." I dead panned. "I was wondering if… How could I use it on others… spectral matters specifically." I said, chewing my bottom lip.

"Ah, want to see into old Jesse boy's past eh? See if he got the old herp from some feisty brothel girl? Wondering if ghost STDs can be given to you? Is that it?" He joked.

"What the fuck." I said, grossed out.

"No, no, Jesse wouldn't be into whores like that. No, it would be Danny right? I'm sure he gave you a couple things." He found himself so damn amusing. I almost grabbed the pool stick and stuck it into his eye, it was so tempting.

"Ok. No. You're a freak." I said exasperated. Shannon was giggling at a youtube video on her phone, I swear I wanted to clunk their heads together and walk away.

"I need to see some memories from Dean or Gwen" I said.

"Why not Jerry? He'd at least be cooperative. And not strangle you." He pointed out.

"He doesn't remember!" I said. "I talked to him. I think he blacked it out or something. He is just a child, I think it was all very traumatic and he has it blocked from his memory, or erased, I don't know. I'll just take my chances with the others."

"No, you won't." Paul said. "They will kill you."

"Let's see them try." I said.

"Um, yeah, and he almost did. Until I saved you. Remember?" He said dryly.

"Stop being so difficult Paul!" I said in annoyance.

"You!" He exclaimed. "Going to kill yourself for what?"

"To understand them! To get them to move on!" I nearly yelled.

We glared at each other stubbornly and heatedly.

"Did I miss something?" Shannon asked, staring at us over her phone.

"Look, you need to be touching them remember?" Paul said. "I doubt they are just going to sit with you and let you hold hands."

"I'll figure it out." I said briskly and turned to walk out.

"Suze you aren't doing this!" Paul yelled after me.

"Watch me." I said.

And he got to. Accidentally of course. But I was angry. Angry enough to go find those ghosts.

I ran into Danny along the way, almost ran over him actually.

"Woah! Suze. Where you stomping off to?" He quipped in his accent.

"Find those damn ghost." I muttered.

"Without help? Really?" He asked.

"Fine, then come help me." I said. He didn't need to be asked twice.

We walked around the mansion, looking for signs or feelings of ghosts.

Danny sighed,

"Maybe they just don't want to be found right now." He said.

"Well too bad." I said with gritted teeth.

"What's wrong? You seem… angry. You still mad 'bout last night?" He asked.

"No." I said honestly, as we walked into the same room school room that Jesse and I had once been in. The exploded marble globe was still on the floor. I thought of Jesse's hand on mine as we had looked at the globe together and I blushed for a second.

"I'm just tired today. I had a horrible sleep." I said.

"Sorry to hear that." He said genuinely. "You usually sleep bad?"

"No, I'm okay. But nightmares all night. I… I've been having this reoccurring dream. This… voice. And darkness." I tried to explain. "Never mind, it's stupid."

"Voice?" Danny asked, looking slightly alarmed.

"I don't know. Some voice. _I see you_." I said in an imitation and laughed. "It's scarier, I assure you." I said.

"Are you sure?" He asked, looking uncomfortable.

"I'm just being a baby." I said. "Don't worry about me so much." He shrugged but looked deep in thought. I felt bad for bringing it up.

"It's sweet though." I said, leaning into him and smelling his cologne. "That you worry." I looked up into his hazel and eye and kissed him softly on the lips. He smiled and kissed back.

A slow clap was heard across the room.

"How cute." Dean said, slowly clapping at us.

I glared at him with no words.

"What's wrong Susie?" He asked mockingly.

"Oh you don't remember the last time you saw me you tried to kill me?" I said with venom.

"I would have let go." He said, in reference to him choking me out.

"No. No I don't think you would have. I saw it in your eyes. I think you, you and Gwen, are getting worse and worse. When ghosts have hate in their hearts, and revenge in their minds. They get worse and worse as the years past. You may have let go in the past, but the present? No. Now you're too far gone. You're a killer now." I said.

He flinched as if I has slapped him.

"No I'm not." He said angrily.

"Yes. You threw a knife at Hannah. You killed her." I said.

"She was a ghost anyways!" He yelled.

"You didn't know that at first." I said. Dean looked dishevelled for a moment, which was unusual since he was usually gorgeously put together.

"I didn't…" He trailed off, looking momentarily scared at himself. What he was becoming.

"I'm not like her!" He yelled at me suddenly.

"Like who?" I asked but our conversation was cut off when Paul and Shannon ran in.

"Jesus Suze, we've been looking for you everywhere!" Paul said in annoyance. "Off to go fight ghosts on your own! What a genius!"

"She has me actually." Danny said, looking at Paul with hate in his eyes.

"Oh, much better." Paul said snidely.

"Look Dean," I interrupted them. "You're just going to get worse and worse. You and Gwen. What about Jerry. Think about him. He misses you. Old you." I said.

"You know nothing. Don't speak of him." Dean said, getting himself collected again. "You and your little mediator group needs to leave before I put you in the ground." He said calmly with a smile on his face.

"It'd like to see you try." Danny said stepping forward, Paul did as well. This was all slipping through my hands.

"Guys…" I warned but it was too late. Dean was using his powers to throw books and chairs at them, and Paul was doing the same. Danny was dodging what he could to get at Dean.

"Goddamn boys." Shannon said rolling her eyes and I felt the same.

This was going to get no where and people were going to get hurt.

But what could I do? I needed to know the past. I needed to know.

So I did the most insane thing. As Dean was distracted by Paul and Danny's antics, I marched up to him, grabbed him firmly by the shoulders (which surprised him to say the least) and kissed him hard against the lips.

The books, tables and chairs fell to the floor. I concentrated the best I could, and with his momentary shock, I let myself into his mind. Or memories at least.

We were in the mansion, it must have been Christmas because the whole place was decorated with beautiful garland and bells and bows. A eighteen foot Christmas tree stood in the tall foyer, gifts underneath spilling out everywhere. Obviously they sparred no wealth.

Dean and Gwen, though much younger but easily recognizable with their dark hair and big blue eyes were gleefully tearing open presents. A baby boy with bright blonde hair, Jerry, sat in a beautiful women's arms. She was elegant with a long, dark red dress on.

She had her dark hair in perfect ringlets and a ruby necklace (the necklace I wore to Hannah's birthday actually) around her neck. She was beaming at her family before her.

What I would only guess as the Father was standing, gazing at his wife with adoration. His crisp black hair and moustache stood out on his face, and he rubbed little Dean's head playfully.

I watched them, and felt their happiness inside of me. Present time Dean watched as well, he didn't ask or bother me to what was going on. He was so entranced by the memory. By seeing his parents finally after fifty years. Feeling such happiness I'm sure was so long forgotten.

Suddenly the memory was gone and we were upstairs, and a different time. Dean in the memory looked to be almost the same age as he was now, maybe more so a teenager, but probably a heart breaker for sure as he was now already handsome as ever.

He was standing with Gwen, listening at a slightly open doorway to what I was guessing was his parent's room.

_"No Joan I don't understand."_ A voice said harshly. It was their father talking to their mother.

_"Please Robert."_ She said. _"It was a mistake."_

_"A mistake? You slept with another man!"_ He thundered. _"It's unforgivable!"_

_"Please!"_ She wailed.

_"My child…"_ Robert said, catching his breath. _"How long was this going on for?"_ He demanded.

_"I don't know."_ She said timidly.

_"How long?_" He yelled, shaking her.

_"Years ago! It ended Robert. It was a mistake I told you."_ She screamed as if in pain.

_"Years?"_ He said. _"And Jerry?"_ He asked. She remained silent.

_"Is he mine?"_ He asked gruffly.

_"I don't…"_ She breathed. Sorrow filled his face.

_"He's not."_ He said, tears spilling down his face. _"I know. He looks nothing like me."_ He said, and I thought of Jerry's blonde hair and freckled skin, in comparison to the rest of the family's dark hair and perfectly snow complexion.

_"You raised him! Of course he is yours!"_ She wailed.

_"No! He isn't! you lied!"_ he shouted. Gwen and Dean looked at each other in pure horror.

_"Dean… Gwen… what are you doing here? Go back to bed. It's alright."_ Joan said realizing they were there, and looking at them with a tear stained face. Robert looked away shamefully.

The memory was disappearing but I needed to know more. I thought of them fully, hoping that I would plunk a memory from Dean that I wanted and it worked.

We were at a funeral. Or the end of one at least.. It was drizzling out and pitiful. Present Dean was staring at a grave in shock. It read "Robert Willow" on it. Memory Dean was sitting nearby.

I listened to the pastor talking to Joan, who was crying at him as the kids sat alone on a bench.

_"We need to save his soul!"_ She was screeching.

_"There is nothing we can do Mrs. Willow."_ he said, patting her arm. _"He knew the cost of his soul when he committed suicide."_ I wanted to punch the pastor. I mean, who tells that to a grieving wife?

_"No!"_ She screamed. "_It's all my fault! He was miserable the past few years. You saw! We all saw! He could barely smile. He hated me. For what I did._" She cried to him and we stood there awkwardly nodding.

The memory slipped away and I tried to hold on to something. Present Dean looked over to me in the memory.

"What…?" He asked, as if finally noticing me for the first time. Crap, I needed to find out the rest fast.

Suddenly we were back at home, in his mother's bedroom.

_"Come play with me!"_ Jerry was singing, jumping up and down on the bed.

_"No… mama's tired."_ Joan said. She was laying in bed, staring off into the distance. She looked horrible. Sickly. Her eyes here dark rimmed and her skin was yellow and taunt. Her hair was thin and she had no smile. She was so different than the beautiful woman from the Christmas memory.

_"Come on Jerry, let's go."_ Dean said, grabbing Jerry's hand. _"Mother is sick."_

_"She has the cold?"_Jerry asked.

_"More in her head."_ Dean said. _"The doctors call it depression."_ he said, looking over to her and she remained silent. _"You know I quit college to come back home right?"_ he said and she didn't reply."_To help you." _ he stressed. She ignored him. Dean sighed in frustration and took Jerry away.

The next memory happened in a matter of seconds. Dean, Gwen, Jerry and Joan in a car driving somewhere. Suddenly lights blinding and screaming. Then it was gone and darkness remained.

Present Dean looked at me in the darkness. I looked at him, eyes wide with tears.

"I'm sorry." I mumbled.

"Get me out of here." He said tonelessly.

I awoke us from the memory seeking, back to reality, back to the study room, back to my lips still on his. I stepped away quickly.

He looked at me, with no more emotion left in him.

"She drove us into an oncoming train." He said. And the room was completely silent.

"She was depressed, suicidal, like dad. Drove us into a train. She wanted to die and take us all with her to see dad. Guess it didn't work." He said, gesturing to himself.

"I'm so sorry." I breathed. But he dematerialized away.

"What the fuck just happened." Danny said, breaking the silence. The kiss and memory seeking might have seemed to last forever to me, but to everyone else it probably only lasted a second, and they got to see nothing I saw.

"Shifter stuff." Paul said, with an amused smirk. "Great work Suze. Though your methods sure are different." He said in reference to the kiss.

"I couldn't think of anything else to get him off guard…" I mumbled.

"Okay, explain please!" Shannon said in frustration.

So I did. And I did again when we ran into Jesse outside the room. And again when we got everyone to the dinner table for a meeting.

I explained everything I saw, about how their father killed himself in grief and shame over wife's affair. And how she then was depressed for years, until taking all of them with her.

Everyone was shocked at such a horrible story.

"I think back in their day, any reference to this was burned or erased because it was all too shameful to speak of. It looked bad for the town too. And now it's just so old and forgotten that the people here don't remember it or know of it." Marcus explained as to why we couldn't find any information on it presently.

"Well good work Susannah." Father Dom said smiling broadly. "We are one step closer everyone!"

Mrs. Hackteur gave myself and Paul a lecture of the dangers of shifting, as she did not know much about it and either did MED. She didn't trust it. Well, hell, neither did I lady.

Eventually I head up to bed, accompanied by Jesse.

"That was a long day _querida_." He said. "I am glad we know more about their past. Though it is almost too terrible to speak of." He said.

"Your past isn't all that better." I said. And he shrugged,

"It is not always good, no. But there is always the future." He said and I smiled.

"Always so positive." I said, hugging him goodnight. I felt his broad arms around me and I stood in them for a minute. Seeing Dean's memories had been exhausting and horrible. I had felt everything his memory self had felt, all the pain and anguish, and even right before he died. The fear. I wanted to cry but Jesse's embrace made me feel better.

"Thanks," I said, "I needed a hug from you."

"Anytime." He said warmly, and kissed me on top of my head. I let my head fall onto his chest and let it sit there. We remained in a comfortable silence for a bit.

"Did you want me to stay the night?" He asked, coughing a little uncomfortably.

Jesse had moved to the rectory when we had started dating. Then when we broke up he stilled lived there but watched over me from time to time.

"Okay." I breathed.

I got into bed and he got comfortable on a chaise lounge in the room.

"Just like old times." He said cheerfully.

"Yep." I said. I knew it was babyish but after such a crazy day I really just wanted to sleep peacefully knowing he was there to make sure it was all going to be okay. Plus I was scared of the nightmare again, the voice. Babyish, I know.

But I slept one of my best nights yet.

o0o

I woke up feeling much better. We were finally making progress on this case and I didn't have any nightmares. I saw Jesse reading a book in my room and I smiled. It reminded me of the good old days.

We had been good together. He reminded me of home, even now he did. He was my best friend and I had no idea where I'd be without him. Probably dead.

And then it had to end. After two years our relationship slowly dissolved. We got further from each other. Actually, I got further from him. I got bitter and resentful of him. I was selfish.

I was growing more and more unsettled. People were bringing their dates out. Ceecee and Adam had finally figured out their feelings for each other. They were going to prom. But I was seemingly alone. With a ghost boyfriend no one could see, no one could talk to, and that I couldn't talk about with anyone.

It wasn't Jesse's fault. I was selfish to get bitter with him over it. All he wanted was to make me happy and I couldn't just be happy with him anymore. It was hard to think about.

Jesse had broken up with me first. I had screamed and cried. I loved him deeply. Even though I was getting resentful of our relationship, it didn't mean I didn't love him. It hurt to think that he wanted to be apart. That he knew we couldn't go on. He couldn't follow me off to college. It would never last.

I knew it too, but I still objected. I still made it hard for him. I was definitely selfish.

Jesse looked up at me,

"Susannah?" He asked, probably wondering why I was staring at him like a creeper so hard. I blushed,

"Sorry, just caught up in my own head." I said.

"Did you sleep alright?" He asked.

"Good, thanks." I said, smiling warmly at him. He hadn't slept over in a long time. When we were together, and um, how can I say this… active in the sexual manner - he would sleep over.

It took a lot to get Jesse to sleep over in that way, he had his old manners and customs so he felt horribly ashamed when he let his passions take over. But I wasn't exactly complaining.

Needless to say it wasn't often when he spent the night, but it had been even more regular when it was in a platonic friendship way. Like last night. It was nice.

We walked downstairs to go see who was up for breakfast. I slumped down next to Nate and Marcus with a bowl of oatmeal to eat. Shannon and Paul were sharing a sub sandwhich across from us.

"I am supposed to be investigating the east wing of the mansion today with Hannah and Daniel." Jesse said, getting off of the bench we shared. "Mrs. Hackteur's orders." He added.

"I know, I'm with Paul and Marcus." I said trying very hard not to roll my eyes as they were both present at the table. Not that I didn't not like Marcus but he was quite the know it all. Pair that up with arrogant Paul and I'm not sure I had the patience.

Jesse gave me a knowing look and smiled,

"Have a good day _querida_." He said. "Oh, and if you want me to stay the night again, do not hesitate to ask." And he dematerialized away.

Everyone stared at me. Really Jesse? I mean, _really_. Was he that oblivious to how bad that sounded?

"What's 'querida'?" Nate asked with a laugh.

"Jesse's pet name for Suze." Paul said with a sneer.

"Ewww." Marcus said, scrunching his nose. "Why?"

"Oh you didn't know?" Paul asked innocently, yet I knew he was being evil. "Good old Jesse and Suze used to play in the hay if you know what I mean."

Shannon elbowed him but giggled. I'm glad my life is so entertaining to them. Marcus's eyes looked huge.

"I thought perhaps there had been something…" Marcus said and blushed.

"OK! Why don't we just stop thinking about it." I said, wishing a hole would open up under my feet and swallow me.

"How does that even work?" Nate said, finding this all highly amusing.

"Oh my god, please everyone shut up." I said, horrified.

"And he slept over last night?" Shannon asked, clearly loving the scandal. "Let us in on the details."

"No, it wasn't like that-" I tired to explain.

"Tisk tisk, if only Danny knew." Paul said mockingly.

"Girl talk later Suze, tell me everything." Shannon said.

"No girl talk! There is nothing to tell!" I said shrilly, getting up to leave.

"He won't be happy!" Paul called out to me, in reference to Danny. I heard them all giggle as I left the room. I wanted to strangle them all. Maybe Dean was on to something.

I huffily stormed away and towards the library for some peace and quite. I nearly ran over poor Father Dom.

"Woah Susannah!" He said, backing out of my way. "Are you alright?"

"Peachy." I said icily and flopped down onto a large red chair in the room.

"You seem upset…" He asked.

"No, no. Just escaping some idiots is all." I said rolling my eyes.

"Well if you need to tell me anything." He said, his old blue eyes sparkled warmly.

"No." I said blushing. The last thing we needed to talk about was Jesse. Or Danny. Or even Paul. My raging hormones was to myself thank you very much.

"You know," Father Dom said, taking a seat opposite me. "I do worry about you."

"Oh, don't Father D. You know I can take care of myself." I said.

"You have been in deathly situations several times, on this trip alone you nearly drowned and was… strangled?" He said wincing.

"You know?" I asked in wonder.

"Marcus told me." He said, smiling with embarrassment. "At least someone feels bad lying to a priest."

"We didn't want to worry you." I said quickly.

"I know, I know," He said, waving his hand at me. "But you need to keep myself and Mrs. Hackteur in the know. We don't want to endanger you all. You know that."

"You worry about me enough." I said.

"Well, you do get yourself in very troublesome situations Susannah. The many times before and after MED." He said with a small smile. "But you are strong willed so I'm not trying to stop you." He said.

"But-" I tried to argue.

"I just want to make sure you are okay." He said.

"Okay." I agreed. Sometimes it was hard to argue with him. I had also missed this. Our chats. We used to chat almost everyday at school, me in his office. He was like a father figure, I mean, my actual father was a ghost who was in and out of my life unpredictably. Andy was a great step dad but he knew nothing of my whole life in being a mediator. A shifter. Father Dom was there for me.

"Well I'm sorry we lied to you. But we did just want to keep you from worrying. We are so close now with these ghosts. I don't want to give up." I said.

"I know. Which is why I did not tell Mrs. Hackteur." He said sheepishly.

"Father Dom!" I said, in a mock scandalized manner

"Yes well, just this once." He said.

I wanted to high five him.

"Well, best get to work Susannah. You are partnered with Paul and Marcus today?" He said.

"Oh, joy." I said sarcastically and followed him out the library.

o0o

Marcus, Paul and I searched around the mansion to go talk to the ghosts. Funny thing about ghosts is that they never appear when you actually want them to.

Now that we knew of their past, we thought maybe it would be easier to coax them to move on, to understand them. Or maybe Gwen would shank me with a knife, who knows.

Marcus was rattling on about each picture frame and rug and chair, how this was from the Victorian century, and that must have been acquired from South Africa, which back in the day would have been quite the lengthy process. And on and on.

As interesting as it started out to be, after two hours I was about to throw myself out one of the large bay windows.

"And if my math is correct, and I'd like to think it is" Marcus chuckled, "That puts these curtains dating back to-"

"Marcus," Paul cut him off, "I think Father Dominic wants to see you."

"Father Dominic?" Marcus asked. "Why?"

"Oh I'm not sure, but he said it was very important." Paul said very matter o' factly.

"How do you know?" Marcus asked, his eyes wide. I looked at Paul in confusion. I don't remember Father Dom telling _me_ anything like that.

"He said at four o'clock, meet him in the library. And, it's now," Paul said looking at his expensive Cartier watch, "quarter after."

"Why didn't you tell me earlier!" Marcus shouted. "I'm already late!"

"Must have slipped my mind." Paul said a slight smile.

"Well excuse me both of you, I have to run!" He said, literally running away.

Paul immersed into laughter once he was gone.

"You lied to him!" I said, finally clueing in.

"I couldn't listen to another minute of him talking about the history of this place." Paul said. I punched him in the arm,

"Now he is going to run all the way there and Father Dom won't even be there!" I said, feeling bad for Marcus.

"He's heading to the library. The kid will read for hours before noticing no one was there." Paul said with a chuckle.

"You are intolerable." I said grumpily.

"I'm resourceful." He said with a wink. "Now I have you right where I want you Simon." He said and I got involuntary chills up my spine.

He walked towards our room we used for shifting training. "Let's get some real work done."

"Oh. Fine." I said briskly. "It's my turn to do memory sharing on you anyways."

"I don't think so." Paul chuckled. "We are moving on to something else today."

"No!" I argued. "It's my turn!"

"I don't want you messing up my head." He said.

"That's not fair Paul! Come on! How are we supposed to do lessons if you won't give us both a fair chance. What kind of teacher are you?" I said.

"Fine." He agreed, "You are so damn stubborn." He said in annoyance.

Ha! I win.

We sat down on the floor and placed our palms, facing each other and touching.

"Clear your mind." He said and we both did.

He was harder to crack into his memories than Dean had been. Though Dean had been very caught off guard with the kiss and I'm sure Paul's head was just screwed up anyways so.

A memory came up of Paul and his family at some resort on vacation. Paul and his father were playing tennis. Paul was racing around the court, hitting back ball after ball. I could feel his intensity. He wanted to beat his father so badly. To prove himself.

This was not the memory I was after. I didn't want to see Paul's memories at all actually. As amusing, or rather sad, as they would be, I didn't want to know Paul on such a personal level. There was one memory in particular I wanted to see. I needed to pluck a memory from closer to the present…

Memory sharing was difficult and random, so the next memory I plucked, though closer to what I wanted, was not what I wanted at all.

It was a memory of the Winter Dance. It was the last night we had spent together before he had left Carmel for years.

He was chasing me around the back gardens of the school. He'd catch me, we'd kiss, I'd push him away thinking guiltily of Jesse, he's chase me. Rinse and repeat.

At one point I tripped and fell onto the grass and him on top of me. My silvery dress matted on the ground.

_"Paul… please…"_ I whined, in the memory. I remember this moment. I didn't want to watch it. Memory Paul had stopped and was watching my face closely. All was still and quiet.

Then memory me slowly reached up and kissed him. I felt Paul's emotions of shock and a pure happiness I hadn't felt in a while. I didn't dare look over to present Paul right now, as he watched this too.

The memory disappeared to one later that same night, but now back at the frontyard of my house.

_"I can't **not** like you okay? So I need you to stop messing around with me because you know I'll always do so. Just choose!"_ Memory Paul said. Memory me stood there, looking at him.

Fuck, this night got worse and worse, I almost forgot. I looked over to present time Paul, watching the scene unfold in front of him, a frown on his face.

_"I…"_ Memory me said, looking confused. I remember that feeling. He wanted me to choose him over Jesse. And I couldn't. Even though Jesse and I were not together at the time (though we were fairly soon after this) I was in love with Jesse. But a part of me, a small part I couldn't admit, had something for Paul. And it was breaking.

Just like Paul's heart broke instantly when memory me whispered,

_"I…. can't. I'm sorry…"_

Memory Paul's face crumpled and memory me had tears falling slowly. I could feel the anguish. Feel Paul's emotions of heartbreak. I glanced over to present Paul and he was watching the memory with an unreadable face. He seemed emotionless to it. How could he not care? Unlike me who was getting tears in my eyes all over again just watching.

_"So… you choose him."_ Past Paul said, trying to get control over his voice - and memory me looked helplessly at him. I couldn't watch this anymore, it was unbearable. I tried to get away from this memory and to a new one. It was slowly dissolving away as Jesse came, punching Paul in the face.

_"Oh **COME ON**!"_ Memory Paul roared. I could feel the anger. Feel how he felt. I saw present Paul slowly close his hand into a fist, watching memory Jesse and memory Paul fist fight on the ground as memory me cried at them to stop.

Finally the memory disappeared and a series of others showed up quickly coming and going in flashes.

A memory of me at the beach, at the Grand Matre Hotel. Looking dead on the beach as Paul leaned over to give me mouth to mouth resuscitation. I could feel the fear in him, the worry. And then the relief when I woke up, sputtering water from my mouth.

A quick glimpse of Paul and Danny fighting in the hotel's ruined library.

A memory of us fighting Ella, our first MED ghost assignment, ruining that very same library.

A handful of seconds of us dancing in the games room, at the Willow estate, here in Dullsdrin. Me in my red dress, him in his dark suit. I could just make out Aimee and Hannah in the background.

None of these were the memories I wanted. I just wanted to find one thing and now there was these spiel of memories I didn't want to look back on.

Why were these memories all of us? I didn't see many glimpse of his home in Seattle, his other friends, anything else of his family, of Shannon. Were the only memories that were pulled were of us because I was pulling them? Or because he thought about these ones often? It was confusing.

But watching present Paul, he didn't seem to care. He had no emotion in his face about it. He was over it. It made me a little annoyed for some reason. Here I was, having to feel all his memories' emotions and he didn't even have to care anymore.

Suddenly we were watching us swimming in the abandoned pool in the mansion, from the other night. My red dress flowing in the water as I swam. He swam on his back looking up at the stars through the sky light.

I could feel that he felt at peace. He swam underwater towards me and popped up right in front of me, leaning his strong arms on either side of my head. He felt calm, this was just a fun game to him.

But I remember what I felt. I remember panicking. My head filled of my own thoughts and memories running a million miles per hour. I watched in horror as memory me leaned forward and slowly kissed him on the lips. Only to recoil just a quick and race out of the pool.

I could feel memory Paul's confusion and shock. God, this was embarrassing. I tried my hardest to pull away from this memory and to another. Luckily it worked.

Suddenly we were outside and it was dark and foggy. Past Paul approached the lit up greenhouse and slowly walked inside. This was the memory I wanted. This was the one I had been trying to pull all along. I needed to know.

He walked in and looked at the twinkle lights, the blooming flowers. He put his hand on one of the big, beautiful yellow roses. Seemingly caressing it. Until his face turned dark and the rose slowly started to decay in his hands and turn black. He looked up and all of these flowers started to die.

It was one of his shifter tricks.

He lets a massive amount of energy pass through him and all the twinkle lights exploded, as well as some of the glass planes of the room plunging us into darkness. I could feel a dark hate inside him. And a carelessness and selfishness.

He looked up to what he did and backed away, momentarily shocked. He looked down at his hands, covered in dirt and glass from the small explosion he created.

He ran out the greenhouse in a confused hurry.

I had had enough. I used my own energy to push away from Paul and we both awoke in our training room. Shifting lesson, over.

I was breathing hard, trying to get control of my emotions.

"Suze…" Paul started, looking a little sheepishly at me.

"You." I said, my voice trembling with anger. "You lied to me!" I said, pointing my finger at him. I got up quickly and Paul got up as well.

"You said you didn't do it!" I yelled.

"Oh come on Suze. Who cares really? Why is this so important to you?" He said, looking annoyed.

"Because!" I said angrily.

"Some stupid greenhouse?" He scoffed. "I could easily 'rebuild' with my powers. Shifters are useful. Grow some flowers, re-fix the glass. _In seconds. _Want me to?" He said with a forced laugh. "It's no big deal."

"It is a big deal Paul!" I cried out at him.

"Look, I'm sorry I ruined you and Danny's special spot." He said in a mocking tone. "It just pissed me off. He pissed me off. So I ruined it. It was immature, obviously, but for him to make some stupid... thing and you just forgive him like that? I don't even-"

"It's not about the greenhouse!" I said exasperated cutting him off. "That was an asshole thing to do, but you're an asshole so it's no suprise!"

He glared at me.

"Then why are you so pissy Simon?" he growled.

"Because I can't trust you!" I nearly screamed.

The room got silent.

"You lied to me. That was always the problem. I can't trust you." I said quietly. I walked out the room, angrily hitting my shoulder against him to move him out of the way.

And he simply let me leave.


	15. Girls and Goodbyes

**Hey my lovely readers and reviewers. It's been a while. A whole summer, actually. I had a lot going on, and needed to take a break from writing for a bit. But I am back at it, and just want to thank you for reading this.**

**I reviewed and edited all the previous chapters if you wanted to take a look, re-read or what not.**

**Thank you for your patience with me, and enjoy.**

**xx**

* * *

Chapter 15: Girls and Goodbyes

o0o

I left the room with my breath catching in my throat, my eyes were starting to burn. Was I going to cry? Jeeze, get a hold of yourself Suze.

But it was hard to get control of this feeling. This feeling of realization. After yelling, literally, at him… that I couldn't trust him. And it was true. After so long I realized why we never could have been together. I didn't… I couldn't, trust him.

My body was betraying me after realizing this. My eyes stung as I blinked back tears, my breathing came out chocked. I didn't want to react like this! Especially because of _him. _

I walked down the hallway and burst into a vacant room for a second to get myself collected, alone.

Paul didn't follow me. He usually came after me as I ran away with a, "Suze wait! I'm sorry!" for whatever he happened to do to me. But not this time. I think I cut him deep too.

Destroying the greenhouse had been a dick move. He was acting selfishly, carelessly, and like a child. But I was used to him acting like that. No, it was him blatantly lying to me. Acting so callous about it. He didn't care.

Knowing I couldn't trust him, my shifter, my supposed friend? It hurt.

'My shifter'? Get a hold Suze! You are unravelling! I wanted to smack myself for being so silly. Take a deep breath, get it together, let's go.

I calmed down, took a breath and turned to leave the room when a crushing pain hit my head. My vision blurred instantly and I grasped at the wall for support.

I wasn't sure if Gwen or Dean had maybe thrown something at my head, a freaking bowling ball or something?

My vision only turned from bad to worse, and all I could see was darkness. I fell to the floor from the pain and blindness, and started to crawl out the room.

"What's happening!" I screamed, louder than I meant to - but hey, from the excruciating pain and all…

"_I see you"…_

It was the voice. The dark voice from my nightmares. How was this happening? Was I dreaming?

I heard a muffled grunt from another room. It sounded angry. It sounded like Paul. He was clearly in pain.

Panic raised in my chest faster than when Dean had been strangling me.

"Paul!" I screamed.

I was blind. I couldn't see where I was damn well crawling to. I think I might have started crying.

"Paul!" I yelled in a miserable voice.

"Suze!" I heard him yell back, closer to me. I felt warm hands touch me and bring me close to his chest.

"What's happening?" He yelled, his voice sounding raw. Scared almost. Oh, the great Paul Slater is finally scared huh? Alright, no time to gloat as I was shaking pretty well with fear myself.

It was the blindness. Not knowing what was coming. It was terrifying. We could die right here, right now.

I felt his hand hold mine. Maybe he was scared to die too.

We sat like that on the floor for who knows how long. The pain eventually grew dull, and then it was all suddenly gone.

I could see again.

I looked up at Paul, and he looked back at me with a look of disbelief. Had that just happened?

His one arm was around me, my body crushed into his, as our hands were clasped together. I was so close I could smell his cologne, and see flecks of silver in his steely blue eyes.

Cough. I awkwardly pushed away from him and he did the same.

"What was that?" He asked, looking a little like a deer caught in the headlights.

"I don't know." I murmured, rubbing my eyes.

"Did you do something?" He asked. "With your powers? You shouldn't just experiment like that. You really could have caused irreparable damage."

"Oh, of course blame me!" I said in annoyance.

"Well, I've never felt anything like that!" He replied. "It's nothing a ghost could do. A shifter maybe…" He trailed off, eyeing me.

"Really Paul? Well I didn't do anything!" I said angrily. "Oh right, I'm supposed to be mad at you!" I yelled childishly, thinking of the trust issues I had previously been thinking about.

I pushed past him and stormed away.

"I think we have bigger issues going on here Simon…" Paul said, following me.

I knew we did. But I didn't want to talk to him.

"Oh really? You're the only issue I have Paul. So beat it." I huffed.

"Dammit Suze, you are so stubborn!" Paul growled at me.

We ran into Marcus who was walking out of the library.

"Hey Paul! Father Dominic wasn't in the library!" He said, doing his best at a glare. Cute.

"Oh really? Must have heard the message wrong." Paul said breezily.

Marcus frowned,

"Well okay-" He began but I cut him off,

"Did you feel that? T-that thing? Not long ago?" I asked, nearly shaking his shoulders like a ragdoll.

He looked at me like I was crazy, which I think I was now. Officially crazy.

"I'm sorry, what do you mean?" He asked politely.

"A crushing pain… darkness!" I said with urgency.

"No…" Marcus said. He was starting to look freaked out by me. Paul and I exchanged knowing glances. He didn't know. Marcus had felt nothing. I wouldn't be surprised it if was only Paul and I who had experienced it, but that didn't seem like a good sign.

"Never mind Suze, Marcus. She needs sleep is all." Paul said with his trade mark smile, and led me away from a very confused looking Marcus.

"I don't think we should go advertising that this happened to us." Paul whispered harshly as we walked away.

"Why? People might think we are freaks? We're mediators. Freaks to the world. We are shifters, freaks to mediators. _Really?_" I asked in amusement.

"I just think it's better not to relay it to everyone." He said with gritted teeth.

Suddenly Danny came running up from the large foyer.

"Where have you been?" He asked in a hurry.

"At the back of the house, training." I jabbed my thumb in Paul's direction. Paul stared back at Danny lazily, daring him to have a problem with it.

"Okay." Danny said faintly, staring off into the distance. He looked shaky and pale.

"Are you okay?" I asked with concern. He looked back at me, startled, as if just noticing that I was there.

"Yeah, yeah, just out of it today." He said, putting a smile back on his handsome face.

Paul rolled his eyes and walked away. I glared at his back as he did so.

"If looks could kill." Danny said in amusement.

"Yeah, well." I muttered.

"I'm not complaining!" Danny said, resting his arm around my shoulder.

We walked into the kitchen, everyone looking at ease. But I knew it was more complicated than that; at least two of us were unhinged. And the crazy was just getting started.

o0o

None of us got much done with the rest of our day. See the thing about ghosts, they aren't dogs, they don't always come when they are called. Especially when they don't even like you, which was very true about Dean and Gwen.

Jesse loved me, and was still very close to my heart too; he would always come when I called. I had comfort in that at least.

Mrs. Hackteur wanted to have a long talk with Paul and I about our shifting abilities after dinner. She wanted to make sure we were not abusing our powers. That sounded boring as all hell, and I wanted to escape Paul so I bailed.

I know, I know, this is bad. I really shouldn't bail on my boss. Especially someone so intimidating as she was. I quickly mumbled to her about having some "girl issues", "time of the month" things and she grew very embarrassed and told me I could leave, and go straight to bed.

Paul saw through my little excuse easily, and glared at me with pure hostility as I backed out of the room and Mrs. Hackteur started her lecture to him. I stuck out my tongue at him and he looked like he wanted to kill me, so I took that as my cue to leave!

I giggled at my little escape plan and walked into the games room. Aimee was doing a crossword puzzle on one of the couches. Shannon was listening to music and Hannah was playing pool with Nate.

"Where's everyone else?" I asked.

"Oh, you mean Danny?" Shannon pointed out.

"No." I muttered in annoyance.

"Well Marcus, Jesse and Father Dom are chilling in the library." She said, "Dan is…" She frowned, "I don't know. Somewhere!"

"Alright, well, thanks." I offered.

"Did you want to go find him?" Hannah asked politely.

"No, no, it's okay." I said, giving her a warm smile.

"You know what?" Shannon said, getting our attention. "I'm sick of boys boys boys."

"Okay." Nate said.

"Oh. Sorry. But anyways, time for some girl time!" Shannon said, standing up from where she was sitting.

"That sounds-" I began,

"Awesome!" Hannah squealed. No Hannah, I was going to say 'horrible', but okay.

"What are we to do?" Aimee asked, gaining interest.

"Oh, I don't know. What can we do here?" Shannon asked, looking deflated.

"Well there is a pool and hot tub…" I mumbled, instantly regretting it.

"Perfect!" Shannon clapped. "Let's meet in the foyer in ten, and Suze can show us where it is!"

So that's how we ended up standing in the pool room, fifteen minutes later (Shannon was taking a while to find a bikini she wanted to wear.)

"Wow." Everyone breathed as they looked around the room. I remember it taking my breath away too, when I first discovered it.

The blue mosaic tiling, all blues, teals, whites. It looks beautiful and Grecian. The skylight showed the big moon and stars overhead.

"The water is chilly, but we'll be okay." I said to them, putting my towel down on a chair.

"How would you know? When did you go swimming?" Shannon asked, staring at me.

"Um. I wouldn't. I didn't." I said, trying to back track. Let's not tell her I went swimming with Paul. "I just tested it with my toes the other day…" I mumbled.

Not that I had wanted to go swimming with him, I mean, we were actually blasted back and into the pool from a ghost's powers but all the same not worth mentioning.

Shannon smiled and shrugged, tyeing the strings on her white bikini tighter,  
"We shall see how long I can stand the cold."

She walked into the pool with a high pitch squeal, but laughed as well. Aimee slowly followed her, her face scrunching as she felt the water. She had on a retro style red one piece, it was cute.

Hannah sat on the edge of the pool, with her feet dipped into the water, her jeans getting wet at the bottom. But I knew they would dry quicker than a normal pair of jeans.

I stared into the crystal blue depths, my reflection looking back at me. I had on a black bikini, my hair as long as ever. Do they have a hairdresser in Dullsdrin? I needed a cut badly. I always let it get too out of control. Jesse used to love it. He used to run his fingers through it as I lay my head in his lap. A smile came to my lips as I thought about it.

"Come on in Suze!" Shannon yelled to me, splashing me a little. I jumped in beside her, effectively getting her hair soaked. I heard a scream of annoyance from her before I sunk to the bottom of the pool.

I stayed on the bottom for a while, relaxing in the quiet depths. It felt good not to hear anyone. No troublesome boys, no murdering ghosts, no gabby girls. Just silence.

If only I were a mermaid, I thought whimsically as I submerged to the surface.

I swam on my back, looking out the skylight. This reminded me of when Paul and I had been flung into the pool not long ago. I glanced over to where we had lent against the shallower part of the pool, where I had kissed him.

I doused my head underwater, embarrassment in my cheeks. I looked up to see Shannon and Aimee getting into the in-ground hot tub.

"I can't stand the cold any longer!" Shannon said, pilling her wet blonde hair into a bun on her head.

"How can you?" Aimee asked towards me, smiling in relief as she sunk into the hot jets of the hot tub.

"I like it." I said quietly, floating on my back again.

Eventually I got out and joined the girls in the hot tub, admittedly, it felt really good. Hannah sat on the edge, her feet in the water. She couldn't even feel it right? Maybe your brain tricked you into feeling these things by habit, when you were a ghost. I wasn't sure, and I didn't want to ask.

The girls chatted gleefully and I smiled to myself glancing around at them. I was finally feeling like I was belonging. Like MED was truly something. Some weird little family. Everyone was so different from each other, but we could come together for a common goal, we could be friends too.

I hadn't had many girlfriends, well, ever. There had been my only friend Gina, in New York. I had been too... unpredictable back then. No one wanted to be friends with the girl who was always causing 'trouble' and talking to herself. Which was all ghost related of course, but it certainly didn't help my popularity.

Then when I moved to Carmel, I made close bonds with Ceecee and Adam. And I eventually branched out to more and more people. I finally came into my own person, finally I knew how to balance my life and my spectral life. Sort of.

Admit-ably, Paul had been pretty helpful in the whole thing. He was the only person I could really talk to about being a mediator. No, about being a shifter. It made me feel... somewhat normal, that there was someone else like me.

What could have been a great friendship was ruined by lust, jealousy and confusion.

"What are you thinking about? You look so serious." Hannah asked, waving a hand in front of my face.

"Oh, sorry." I said with a sheepish grin. "Caught up in my head."

"What about?" Shannon prompt.

"Uh, just home." I said.

"Mmm." She agreed, caught up in her own memories.

"I do miss it sometimes." Aimee said out loud.

"All the time!" Shannon said dramatically.

"What's at home for you?" Hannah asked.

"Everything." Shannon said with a winning smile. "Seattle with my dad. He's awesome. I'm a bit of a daddy's girl, hard to believe I know." She said, rolling her eyes at herself and we chuckled. "But my mom left my dad and my brother when we were pretty young. He did amazing raising us. Once he had good money, she came crawling back but I don't talk to her much." She said with distaste.

"That must have been hard." Aimee noted.

"Yeah it was confusing. But my older brother, Chase, he's my rock. He kept me sain when the wicked woman of the west came rolling back through. I just want my dad to be okay." She added.

Hmm, I would have pegged Shannon to be an only child.

"How did you meet Paul?" Hannah asked. My stomach clenched a bit.

"Well, he came to my school in our senior year. It was a private school, small and pretty cliquey. Obviously everyone, every girl, wanted to know who he was and what he was about. But he was pretty stand-offish at first. Really cold. Too cool for everyone." She said rolling her eyes. I smiled slightly, sounded like him. Until you got to know him.

"But we bonded. One day I was crying over my family drama and he helped me out. He has his own family drama, so he understood. And he knew what heartbreak felt like." My stomach clenched harder. I tried not to change my expression. I didn't want her to clue into the situation.

"Aw, so cute!" Hannah said giggling.

"And he dragged me to Carmel. For this meeting thing, MED, he got a letter for it from Father Dominic." She continued. Damn, I knew Father Dom must have invited him! I will have to give him my mind on that later.

"Well it's now shared history from there on. I think he was always thinking of taking a year off before law school, to have some time off before so much more schooling. I had plans to take some acting courses. Move to Los Angeles eventually. But here I am." She finished.

"Maybe Dullsdrin has some good acting classes for you." Aimee said, trying not to laugh. We gave her a wierd look and burst out laughing anyways.

"For the Corn festival maybe." Shannon said, laughing harder.

"What about you Aimee, what's your story?" I asked, after we had all stopped laughing.

"Well, I have four brothers and two sisters." She said.

"What? Wow." Shannon said, her blue eyes big.

"I inherited three brothers when my mom remarried and that was enough." I said with a laugh.

"Yeah, it's overwhelming sometimes." She admitted. "I always felt small in a sea of big voices. Everyone was always a star. One brother was the football hero, another won almost every science metal. My sisters were always out on dates. But at the end of the day, after all the chaos of dinner and what not, me and my dad would be left reading our books in the family room. Thankful for any silence in that house, and every so often he'd look over his book, at me, and nod. And I knew he was proud of me in his own way." She said smiling, lost in her memory.

We all silently smiled to ourselves, thinking of our own happy home memories.

I realized in that moment how I had judged these people so wrong. For the first half of our trip I had had some preconceived notion of how everyone was, and I was wrong. Why did I have to be jaded? Because when I let them, people always surprised me.

I wished I was more like Jesse, he was kind to everyone. He always gave everyone the benefit of the doubt. He was a good heart.

"You Suze?" Aimee asked, breaking my thoughts.

So I told them. About New York, about moving to Carmel, my new brothers and step dad. About meeting Jesse, I blushed, and soon falling for each other. And also that we broke up, and it was still hard. I barely mentioned my dad or Paul. My dad was too much to begin to talk about, as he was still ghostly around... well, hardly around but he popped in now and then. I didn't really want to tell them about that.

And Paul, well that was a whole other story. Too long to tell, too hard to explain. Even_ I_ still didn't understand it. Plus I didn't think Shannon would appreciate it much.

Shannon broke out a bottle of wine and we drank it, all telling stories and laughing. It felt so good.

Eventually, with the help of the wine, we asked Hannah about her past.

She told us about her family, she had lived on a farm in the southern part of California. She had plenty of big dogs, cats, horses. She had three little sisters. She sounded so happy talking about it. Then she mentioned how it happened. A drunk driver hit the truck her and her boyfriend were in. Her boyfriend survived and she didn't.

"Do you ever go back? To see your family?" Aimee breathed.

"I do check in on them from time to time." Hannah said. "I don't like to see them sad. It was horrible at first. I just wanted to touch them. To hug them and let them know I'm okay. But it's easier now. It's been a few years and they are getting on with their lives. But I can feel that they miss me. I always feel it. It tugs at me, even now. Tugs at me spiritually, like that's my home base. I could apparate there in a second. But I can't do anything for them now. I need to live a little," she giggled at her joke, "So MED seemed like a great idea."

"You're brave Hannah." I said with heart. Aimee sniffed and brushed tears out of her eyes. Shannon finished the bottle of wine.

The mixture of alcohol and hot tub was going straight to my head. We all got out and took a breather, getting our selves collected.

I felt a presence immediately.

I turned around and Gwen was glaring at us.

"What?" I demanded harshly. I was in no mood for her crap. We had had a great night and now she was going to ruin it.

"Excuse me?" She demanded hotly, stamping her foot down on the marble floor.

"What's _she_ doing here?" Shannon asked, tying a towel around her waist.

"This is MY house!" Gwen said, color flushing to her face.

"Whatever." Shannon muttered in annoyance. I could feel the power growing in Gwen. Aimee looked over uneasily at her.

"Why don't we just call a truce for tonight?" She said fairly.

"A truce?" Gwen demanded. "No." She snapped, and Shannon said it as well, at the same time. They stared at each other.

"Look Gwen, it's four against one. And you can't hurt Hannah. As for me, well, we both know I'd destroy you, so let's just stop okay?" I said, folding my arms.

Gwens nostrils flared. "Last time, I'm pretty sure I blasted you away." She said with a smirk.

"Um, no. Pretty sure Suze and Paul kicked your ass." Shannon said, gloating. Oh god. Shannon was talking about when Paul and I had fought Dean and Gwen in the den. Gwen was talking about Paul and I, blasted back from her in this pool room.

"No. Are you stupid?" Gwen said towards Shannon.

"Are you delusional?" Shannon demanded.

"Uh, ok, who cares really?" I said, trying to get off the subject. I didn't really need Gwen outing out my lie over the whole pool room/Paul thing.

"You're outmatched Gwen." I said flatly.

"Try me." She hissed and blasted energy forward. It caught Shannon directly and blasted her back, luckily Hannah used her own energy to direct Shannon's fall into the pool, and not on her neck. Aimee was blasted indirectly and fell backwards onto the floor.

I blasted back Gwen twice, looking behind me for a quick second to make sure the girls were okay. Shannon was climbing out the pool, muttering in anger. Aimee was getting up, rubbing her sore back. She looked a little shaky but that also might have been too much wine.

Gwen blasted her powers at me but this time I was ready. I shielded it using a technique that Paul had showed me. I snapped my fingers and fire grew from them. I flicked my fingers towards Gwen and the fire shoot at her. She screamed as her blue dress caught a flame.

I heard the girls gasp behind me as Gwen screamed. Gwen dematerialized in a fit of rage and sparks.

"Nice Suze!" Shannon said, clapping me on the back.

"That was cool." Aimee said, handing me my towel back. I wrapped it around myself, turning to them, holding my head in my hand.

"You okay?" Shannon asked. "Too much wine?"

"No, well, yes. But it's a shifting headache." I said shrugging.

"Anything we can do?" Hannah asked sweetly.

"No, I"m good. Think I might just head to bed." I said smiling.

"Aw, stay!" Hannah said,

"Yeah Suze!" Aimee said and Shannon agreed with a wine induced giggle.

"We just kicked ass, well, you," Shannon admitted "We need to celebrate."

I opened my mouth to reply when the pool room door opened and Paul and Nate strolled through.

"The party has arrived!" Nate said laughing. "Or you girls already started?" He said, picking up the empty wine bottle.

"Sorry Nate!" Shannon sing songed.

Nate cannonballed in the pool, the girls shrieked in laughter.

"Suze just kicked Gwen's ass." Shannon said to the boys.

"We all did." I added.

"Some cool shifter stuff." Aimee said, blushing as Nate picked her up and threw her into the pool with a little scream.

Paul glanced at me, his cool eyes smiling. "Nice Suze."

I forced a smile and tried not to stare at his tan chest, or the pool that we had swam in not long ago.

"Anyways I'm going to bed. Night girls. And boys." I added with a small wave and walked out.

"You shouldn't walk alone!" Shannon called after me. Paul started after me to be kind but I gave a short "don't" and he backed off. Our fight was still too fresh in both our minds.

I got to my room, feeling like I weighed a ton. Either from the wine, shifting or whatever else... I was exhausted.

I got into some old boxers and a tank top, flopped into bed and my eyes closed heavily.

I should have asked Jesse to watch over me because next thing I knew, I awoke in a nightmare.

o0o

It was the voice. I was almost getting accustom to it. Except not at all, because it was horrible.

I was running blindly in the darkness. I wasn't sure where I was running or to what but I was running. I could hear someone crying out, someone familiar but I couldn't tell. I could see a far off figure. Who was it? Someone tall. I knew I had to get to them, had to run to them. I was so scared. I was scared for them. Something bad was going to happen.

"_I will ruin everything you love._" The voice said. I let out a ragged yell as I fell through the darkness, right before I could reach, whoever it was, I needed to save.

I awoke thrashing wildly in my sheets, in my room in the Willow's estate. The room was lit from the bright moon outside.

I was breathing unevenly, and I noticed I was drenched in sweat. I felt sickly. Feverish. These nightmares were literally making me sick.

I got out of bed shakily, my legs wobbling. I felt physically ill. I opened my door and walked down the dark hallway, silent as my bare feet touched the carpet. I blindly ran into someone else. I took in a rush of air to scream, so shaken up from the dream, when a hand shot out and covered my mouth.

"Shh. It's late." I heard Paul say. My eyes adjusted to the darkness and he lifted his hand from my mouth. He was wearing only low fitting, dark blue pajama pants. I noticed his eyes looked darkened and his chest had a sheen of sweat on it.

"You had a dream didn't you?" I demanded. He looked at me coldly.

"Why?" He asked.

"I can tell. You look as bad as I probably do right now. I told you it wasn't me who was doing it!" I huffed irritably. "This is real."

"I don't know what it is." He said quietly.

"For once." I said smugly. He rolled his eyes at me.

"Well I'm not going to bed anytime soon." He admitted. "Let's go to the kitchen, so we don't wake everyone up." I nodded and followed him there.

He made two sandwiches and I ate, realizing how hungry I was.

"It's making me sick." I said, after a full big gulps of milk.

"What do you mean?" He asked, looking at me.

"I don't know... I just... it feels like it's eating at my body. My soul? Hell if I know. But this is real. Too real." I said, with a shiver in spite of myself. Paul nodded in agreement, quietly mulling over his sandwich.

"I'll see if there is anything about this in the books." He said, talking about his shifter books.

"Okay." I said faintly, more tired than ever.

"Should probably try to get some sleep. Some real sleep." He said frowning.

"Y-yeah." I said, nervous even thinking about it. But I was scared. Scared to close my eyes and feel that pain and desperation again. To feel sick with fear.

"You okay to do that?" He asked. He didn't even ask it sarcastically or smugly, he genuinely wanted to know.

"Yes." I said. I didn't want to call Jesse to watch me in front of him. To admit to this weakness.

He walked me back to my room and I sat on my bed, he sat beside and leaned back, over the covers.

"What are you doing?" I asked.

"You need to sleep. And I don't think you'll be doing it much if you're alone. I'll wait until you fall asleep." He said. I didn't know what to say, I was a little choked by emotion. This was stuff Jesse did. Used to do. This wasn't Paul Slater. Or was it just not the parts of Paul I ever saw, or let myself see?

"Ok." I agreed because I was too tired, and actually grateful that he was doing this. I pulled the blanket over me and glanced at him. "Thank you." I said quietly and he smiled smugly,

"Of course." And there's the Paul I know.

But I slept. And no nightmares.

o0o

The next day I awoke with new resolve. We needed to leave this place. We had been here for too long and it wasn't safe anymore. And these were people I cared about, I couldn't see us get hurt anymore. I flung the sheets off of me (at the point, noticing Paul must have left in the night) and quickly got dressed.

I marched into the den that Dean had once been choking me in. My anger flared up inside me quickly.

"Come at me." I muttered darkly. I was hoping they would show up. Hoping they would test me and I could end it with them. And move on.

"Susannah."

I heard his voice behind me and turned around. He looked curious, but sad too.

"Jesse." I said. "What are you doing here?" I didn't mean to sound like an asshole. He was my bestfriend and all. But I knew he would ruin my plans.

"What are _you_ doing?" He said, sounding disappointed. He already knew.

"But we have to leave this place." I said, desperation filling my voice. I needed to convince him.

"We will. In time. The right way." He said gently. "Have you not learned by now?"

He thought I was a child.

"Yes." I said with gritted teeth. This would have been better with Paul, or Danny. They would want to kick ass, and finish the job. But no, Jesse had morals. Jesse had heart. Of course Jesse was right. But I was stubborn.

"Jesse, it isn't safe here anymore! For any of us!" I said, stepping closer to him. "Don't you see? Something, something will happen." I said, my voice small and scared to my ears.

"I won't let it." He said, putting his strong arms around me.

"We need to _leave._" I whispered.

"Are you scared of Dean? Of Gwen? Or something more?" He said, his dark eyes boring into mine.

"N-no." I said. He could read me too well by now.

"What is it Susannah?"

It's the voice. It's something coming for me. I need to keep running. I'm always running.

"Nothing." I choked out. "Nothing." I said, a little more firmly, pushing him away a little.

Jesse looked sad.

"When did you stop talking to me _querida?_" He said.

"I am." I replied. But we both knew what he meant. He stood in silence for a moment until another presence swept the room.

"Cowboy!" Jerry shouted, hugging Jesse from behind. Jesse smiled warmly,

"How are you today Jerry?" He asked nicely.

"Sad." He said, his little face in a frown. " I never see Dean and Gwen anymore. They left me too. Just like mom and dad."

Dean and Gwen were just too busy planning our murders, but I didn't say that.

"Jerry, they are just... trying to find a way home." I said.

"We are home." Jerry answered.

"No, this _was_ your home. A long time ago. Your home with your mom and your dad and your brother and sister. Home is your family." I said, my heart hurting a little.

"They are in hell." He said plainly. Jesse looked sad too. A little help here _cowboy_!

"They aren't." I said firmly.

"Pastor said!" Jerry argued.

"That was what he believed." I said. "And you know what? People can believe different things. I'm a mediator. I can see and speak to the dead. And I can shift. Shift to a place where they go. Where they need to go. Where they can walk through doors to a whole new life. Or whatever it is. Maybe it is doors to heaven, maybe hell. But that's just it. We don't know. We just don't know. But whatever it is, you will see them again. You will be home."

Jerry thought about it,

"Ok." He said simply, a smile on his face. Jesse was watching me with a curious look. He looked lost in my words.

I looked back down and Jerry had dematerialized.

"I hope that helped him a little." I said.

"Yes Susannah, I'm sure it did." Jesse answered.

o0o

I decided Jesse was right. I couldn't do this alone. Or I shouldn't. I had to do it right. MED met up in the gorgeous library of the Willow's estate.

"They won't come." Nate said, moving his shaggy hair out of his eyes. "They'll know how many of us are here. Pussies."

Aimee elbowed him.

"Sorry Mam." He said towards Mrs. Hackteur, who was glaring at him.

"We need to try to talk to them together. I feel as though we have gathered up enough information on their pasts and who they were, to try to help them move on to who they will be." Father Dominic said.

"Yeah, thanks to Suze's little inception trick." Danny said, smiling at me.

"Dean wasn't asleep. As per inception." Paul said dryly.

"Whatever you call it." Dan said with gritted teeth.

"I agree with Nate. Their too stubborn to talk." I said, doubting our plan now.

"Let the Padre try." Jesse said gently to me. I smiled small at him.

"Dean and Jerry can move on. Gwen can live here in hell." Shannon said, lounging on a chair. Hannah giggled. Oh the irony Hannah.

"What are ya all doing?" I small voice happily asked. Everyone looked alarmed as Jerry stood in the room.

"Uh, hi Jerry." I said meekly. "Not much." Ooh, just planning on how to get rid of you three?

"Well, we are actually looking for you and your siblings." Mrs. Hackteur said. Jerry looked scared at her. Do not blame the kid.

"Do you know where they may be?" Father Dom asked soothingly.

"I don't know." Jerry said mumbling.

"Try calling them." I said, holding his hand.

"Calling them?" Jerry asked.

"Yes. When you... have a connection with someone. Especially when that someone can feel the different spiritual planes, like ghosts, or mediators... shifters... you are bonded. Bonded by a connection that will forever bring them to you." I said, glancing up at Jesse. Paul regarded me with cool eyes and I looked down quickly.

"No matter where they are, you can find them. They will feel you tugging at them, at their hearts. So, call them." I said softly.

Jerry screwed up his face, closing his eyes.

"It's like making a wish." I whispered.

The room was deathly quiet.

I looked around nervously. If this doesn't work it's going to be really embarrassing dammit-

And they were there.

Dean and Gwen appeared in the middle of the room, I backed away, holding Jerry's hand.

"What is going on?" Gwen demanded, eyeing everyone in the room, looking like a deer caught in headlights.

Dean coiffed back his hair with his hand, standing and surveying everyone coolly. Looking dead sexy, so to speak.

"Why, I think this is an intervention sweet sister." He said, with slight humor in his voice.

"We should go." She said, fear rising in hers. Until she saw me holding onto Jerry.

"Give him to me." She demanded. "Give him to me!" She screeched and a vase shattered.

"Get yourself under control miss." Mrs. Hackteur said. Gwen spun around wildly,

"Who do you people think you are? Coming into _our_ home! Wearing _our _things!" (We all looked guiltily at each other, hoping Mrs. Hackteur would't ask about that)

"You're dead. It's not yours." Shannon pointed out in annoyance.

"These are just memories now." Father Dom said, much more nicely.

"You can't do this!" Gwen said, getting hysteric.

"Like hell we can't! You hurt people, you hurt my brother!" Nate said angrily, putting a protective hand on Marcus.

"You tried to kill me. Again." Hannah pointed out. They all started yelling at each other. All the while, Dean was standing unaffected. Staring at me with cool eyes.

"Dean!?" Gwen said, angry tears on her pretty face.

"Yes?" He asked dryly, never taking his eyes off of mine.

"Help me out here!?" She said shrilly. He turned his head to her.

"They are right." He said calmly.

"W-what?" She sputtered.

"They are right." He said again.

"No!" She said, stomping her foot. "This is ours! It's ours!"

"It was ours." He said. "It was. But it's not anymore. We cannot continue to live in this past. How much longer can we hold on to something that was years and years ago? We are not young anymore. We have grown old together. All of us." He said, looking to Jerry. He stepped towards him, hand outstretched.

I stepped forward, leading Jerry to him.

"Dean.." Gwen said, looking at him with big blue eyes. "I'm scared." He looked back with a sad smile.

"There is nothing to fear," Father Dominic said, placing hand on her back. She looked at him, as if hoping he would have all the answers. "It is what must be done. It is the next step in this grand adventure." He said to her, and she nodded feebly.

Jerry reached forward and grabbed Dean's outstretched hand.

"Home now?" Jerry asked, looking back at me.

"Home." I said, smiling.

They started to shimmer ever so lightly.

Dean stepped forward to me, grabbing my arm and pulled me close to him.

Dan made a move towards me, but Jesse stopped him with his arm. Paul looked like he flinched but didn't make a move. Unless I probably imagined it.

Dean leaned in close to my ear and whispered for just me,

"You have something special Suze. Don't lose it. I can feel it in you... when you did that... mind memory sharing? I could feel it in you. I trust you will save them." He said.

"Save them?" I said confused.

"You'll know." He said. He lightly kissed me on the cheek, and then stepped back into his family. They soon were dematerializing, for good this time.

"Bye cowboy!" Jerry yelled happily before they were gone for good. They have moved on.

Everyone gave a sigh of relief. Finally, it was over.

"Well that went very well!" Father Dominic said, clapping his hands.

"Second assignment down." Marcus said with an accomplished smile.

"On to the next." Shannon said with a sigh, as Paul draped his arm around her. On to the next...

o0o

We were back on the bus, leaving Dullsdrin behind sooner than I could say. It suddenly seemed like it had all happened so fast, like we had just arrived there, even though it had been weeks.

The realtor, and woman who had hired us for the Willow's estate job; Mrs. Norwell, had been overjoyed that we had finished the job.

"I wasn't sure you could!" She said. Why, thank you.

Leaving the beautiful scenery of red, orange and yellow falling leaves was sad. I had wanted to get out of that place so badly, to run. But it was hauntingly beautiful, and I had grown so much as a person from the experience. This whole MED experience really.

We were going back to California. Back home. They were dropping us off at the Mission and we were to have a couple weeks off to go back to our families and such. After travelling for two months, it felt good to know I was heading back.

We were going to have a couple weeks off before our next assignment. I couldn't even imagine...

By the time we got back, the sun was setting into the sky.

Everyone was slowly lumbering off the bus, stretching and yawning.

Hannah had disappeared half way home, and Jesse was standing against the bus, hands in his pockets, looking at me with a lazy smile.

"I will see you later _querida_." He said, after a few warm goodbyes to some of the others.

"You better." I said teasingly, and waved as he disappeared.

I said my goodbyes as well, highfiving Nate, hugging a red faced Marcus, getting squeezed by Shannon, and a warm smile from Aimee. I shook hands with Mrs. Hackteur and gave the old priest a hug.

"Stay out of trouble over the break Susannah." He said.

"Oh, you know me!" I laughed. He smiled wearily at me.

I walked over to Danny, who was leaning up against his sports car.

"So." I said, leaning up against it too.

"So." He replied, with a lopsided grin. But the grin faded and he looked troubled.

"What's wrong?" I asked with concern. I wanted to touch his face. But I was also scared. I was scared that these feelings had returned again for someone who had hurt me so easily before. I had no control.

"I'm not coming back for a while." He said, looking up into my eyes.

"W-what?" I asked, startled.

"I need to figure some stuff out at home," He said, his accent mixing in his words. "I have things I need to get done before I come back."

"Why?" I demanded stubbornly. "We are getting a couple weeks off. Isn't that enough?"

"No." He answered simply. "I can't really do all I need to do right now. But I'll meet up with MED again down the road. No worries."

"But." I said, at a lose for words. "How do you know?"

"I will." He said. He grabbed my hands and spun me to face him. "Suze... I know things with you and I haven't always... been the best. Up and down and all over the place really. I know you could do much better."

I remained silent, listening to him.

"I don't have the tumultuous past you have with Paul. And Jesse? Jesse had your heart the second you saw him. I'm not even a good guy... but even if I try to deny it, and do stupid things to try to forget it... I do love you. I do." He said, looking at me, with a broken smile.

I didn't know what to say. I rested my forehead against his chest.

"Don't leave." I said sadly. We had a connection, there was no denying. Even though he had hurt me before, I could not deny we had this connection that I could not understand or pinpoint, but it felt familiar.

"I have to." He said, slowly pushing me away. He leaned in close to my ear whispering, "But I will come back for you"

And then he turned, got in his car and left. I sniffed back a tear as I turned around to a honking of a car.

I could see my mom and Andy, driving up, with Doc in the back seat hopping up and down, my mom waving at me wildly.

I couldn't help but break into a smile.

I walked over to their car, glancing over as Shannon was getting into Paul's car. Paul stopped at his door and gave me a nod goodbye. I nodded back.

And then I was in the arms of my mom, of family and of love.

And I was finally heading home.


End file.
